Includes bibliographical references and index.

The geography of water -- Understanding water -- Mapping water -- Defining and characterizing a stream -- Exploring hydrography datasets -- Designing a hydrography dataset -- The NHD in arcGIS -- The NHDplus in arcGIS -- User stories -- The NHD on the web -- Lidar and IFSAR derived elevation to define hydrography -- The future. GIS for Surface Water: Using the National Hydrography Dataset, enables scientists, managers, and students to analyze the vital surface waters of the United States by combining the ready-to-use powers of a comprehensive database of the nation's waters and the ArcGIS platform for geographic data analysis and mapping--