Hierarchical Classification of the Hydrologic Landscapes of the North American Continent (v1)

This resource contains a continent-wide polygon dataset representing the hierarchical classification of hydrologic landscapes across North America. The dataset includes:

• Hydrologic Domains (Level 1)
• Hydrologic Provinces (Level 2)

It also includes cartographic styles for QGIS and ArcGIS Pro and figures illustrating the hierarchical classification.

Overview

Resource Contents

Figures

• north_america_hydrologic_regions.pdf: High-resolution figure of the hierarchical classification.
• north_america_hydrologic_regions.png: Image version for quick viewing or presentations.

Vector Data

For convenience, data are provided in two geospatial formats.

Geopackage

A single geopackage is provided, containing two layers:

Shapefiles

Two polygon datasets are provided:

Each dataset is provided as a standard shapefile, consisting of the following files:

• .shp: Main geometry file containing polygon boundaries of hydrologic provinces.
• .dbf: Attribute table with per-province fields (see “Key fields” below).
• .shx: Spatial index linking geometry records for fast access.
• .prj: Coordinate reference system (CRS) for the layer (read by GIS to set the projection).
• .cpg: haracter encoding for the attribute table (ensures text renders correctly).

On HydroShare, these files are grouped and displayed as a single shapefile dataset to facilitate easier browsing and clearer metadata presentation.

GIS Styling Files

Geopackage

Styling information is included as part of the Geopackage, and should automatically be applied. If not, follow the steps below or use the color specification included in the attribute table of the respective layer to manually set the appropriate colors.

Shapefiles

To reproduce the cartography (colors) used in the figures:

If the .qml files are located in the same directory as the shapefiles, QGIS may automatically apply the styles when the data is loaded.

How to use?

First, download the entire resource from HydroShare by clicking the "Download" button on the right-hand side of the page. This will give you a ZIP file containing all the files mentioned above. Extract the contents of the ZIP file to a folder on your computer.

QGIS (recommended)

1. Open QGIS (version 3.16 or later recommended).
2. Drag north_america_hydrologic_regions.gpkg into the map window.
3. Select the layers(Level 1 and Level 2) to add.

ArcGIS Pro (recommended)

1. Drag north_america_hydrologic_regions.lpkx into a map.
2. Both layers and their symbology will load automatically.

Using Shapefiles

Load either of the following layers: north_america_hydrologic_regions_level1_domains.shp north_america_hydrologic_regions_level2_provinces.shp Symbology can be applied using the provided: .qml files for QGIS .lyrx files for ArcGIS Pro

Citation

Knoben, W. J. M., H. McMillan, Y. Fan, S. Carney, I. Garousi-Nejad, J. Masterman, J. S. Read, K. van Werkhoven, M. P. Clark (2026). Hierarchical Classification of the Hydrologic landscapes of the North American Continent (shapefile - v1), HydroShare, http://www.hydroshare.org/resource/00c1d461e9554a71a4b2d4ba80507a4c

NOTE: This dataset represents an ongoing effort. Updates and improvements may be released in future versions.