Names of streams or hydro features

[DavidTilley]

I work along the Appalachians over 6 states, and work in close to study natural features such as contour and especially streams. I have searched quite a bit to find on line feature sources for streams that are very complete and or have the stream name. It may be that I just have not found the right sources, typically having to go to each state or each county to get some degree of what i need, and it is frustrating to have to have a google map open along with ArcGIS Pro in order to go to the Google map to find the more detailed/complete streams with names. I find the same with streets as well, and mostly rely of local counties sharing their data, needing anything that can be considered a road or driveway, in use or abandoned. Also, because I am often in remote areas, I need data that I can download in order to have it available off line. 

Any suggestions greatly appreciated. 

[ThomasHamill · Accepted solution]

Hi @DavidTilley, have you tried the USGS National Hydrography Dataset (NHD)?  If not, I recommend checking the NHD geodatabases distributed by state (.zip)—These feature classes for NHD Lines and NHD Flowlines will often have proper name attribution for named streams and water bodies, though not every single feature may have complete attribution.

[ThomasHamill]

@DavidTilley, did you have a chance to check the USGS NHD?  Was that helpful?

[DavidTilley]

Yes @ThomasHamill  , I have spent most of the past few days giving it a good workout. It seems to be better than others I have tried, and where I have looked for complete detail, it seems to be there. I was good timing. I was working around Roanoke Virginia and the base map showed very little, as did another file I had been using. It appeared, from the base map, that Roanoke just did not have many streams. But i knew they were just paved over. The NHD includes the covered streams as well. Even though slightly relocated in many cases, it is still a great record. A lot of professional time and knowledge went into that. I greatly appreciate you recommending it. If I can ever learn to utilize everything built into it, I will have learned a great deal more.

Thank you