Geospatial database of ground-water altitude and depth-to-ground-water data for Utah, 1971-2000

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality has developed a geographic database of selected ground-water-level altitude contours and surfaces for Utah. The contour data are derived from studies published by the USGS and the State of Utah. The published contours were converted to digital format and attributes documenting information such as the water-level altitude, the year the study report was published, the year for which the contours were drawn, and a link to the on-line version of the study report were added to the data set. The contours were input to the database as a unique polyline feature class for each study area. The digital contours were passed through an inverse distance weighted algorithm to develop a continuous interpolated water-level altitude surface in raster format. The water-level altitude surface was subtracted from USGS National Elevation data to derive a second raster of the estimated depth-to-ground-water surface for each study.

Comparison of the derived water-level altitude surface to water-level measurements from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) database shows calculated values from the water-level altitude rasters are generally well correlated with measured values from NWIS.

The database is not intended to result in exact predictions of the ground-water altitude or depth to ground water for any location but can be used as a general guide to aid the management and protection of ground-water resources in Utah.

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
bureauCode {010:12}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
identifier USGS:75622616-e712-4fd7-8782-689ae2916617
metadata_type geospatial
modified 20201117
old-spatial -114.221615, 36.986589, -108.942178, 42.019325
publisher U.S. Geological Survey
publisher_hierarchy Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash a72125cff1966c4e823c82b61ef3d1c9533dd84d
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-114.221615, 36.986589], [-114.221615, 42.019325], [ -108.942178, 42.019325], [ -108.942178, 36.986589], [-114.221615, 36.986589]]]}
theme {geospatial}
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • ckan
  • depth-to-ground-water
  • environment
  • geo
  • geoscientificinformation
  • geoss
  • great-basin
  • ground-water
  • inlandwaters
  • national
  • north-america
  • pieziometric-surface
  • potentiometric-surface
  • united-states
  • usgs-75622616-e712-4fd7-8782-689ae2916617
  • utah
  • water-level-altitude
isopen False
license_id notspecified
license_title License not specified
maintainer U.S. Geological Survey Utah Water Science Center
maintainer_email mierardi@usgs.gov
metadata_created 2025-11-22T15:10:19.702238
metadata_modified 2025-11-22T15:10:19.702242
notes The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the Utah Department of Environmental Quality has developed a geographic database of selected ground-water-level altitude contours and surfaces for Utah. The contour data are derived from studies published by the USGS and the State of Utah. The published contours were converted to digital format and attributes documenting information such as the water-level altitude, the year the study report was published, the year for which the contours were drawn, and a link to the on-line version of the study report were added to the data set. The contours were input to the database as a unique polyline feature class for each study area. The digital contours were passed through an inverse distance weighted algorithm to develop a continuous interpolated water-level altitude surface in raster format. The water-level altitude surface was subtracted from USGS National Elevation data to derive a second raster of the estimated depth-to-ground-water surface for each study. Comparison of the derived water-level altitude surface to water-level measurements from the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS) database shows calculated values from the water-level altitude rasters are generally well correlated with measured values from NWIS. The database is not intended to result in exact predictions of the ground-water altitude or depth to ground water for any location but can be used as a general guide to aid the management and protection of ground-water resources in Utah.
num_resources 2
num_tags 19
title Geospatial database of ground-water altitude and depth-to-ground-water data for Utah, 1971-2000