LAGOS-US LOCUS v1.0: Data module of location, identifiers, and physical characteristics of lakes and their watersheds in the conterminous U.S.

Abstract

Macroscale studies of aquatic ecosystems are needed to address many contemporary broad-scale problems related to global change, particularly to inform national-scale environmental policies. In this data paper, we fill two important gaps in data availability for lakes at the scale of the conterminous U.S., the lack of: (1) high-resolution geographic representations of lakes and their watersheds and (2) an open data platform to connect disparate U.S. national-scale lake datasets. We describe the LAGOS-US LOCUS v1.0 data module that includes a detailed User Guide, which is part of the LAGOS-US extensible research-ready open data platform. This platform can be used to study the 479,950 lakes and reservoirs larger than or equal to 1 ha across the entire conterminous U.S. at multiple scales of space and time. The LOCUS module includes spatially-explicit information on lakes and their watersheds, including location information, physical characteristics, and identifiers of other important national-scale datasets.