U.S. Fish & Wildlife ServiceDefinition This indicator identifies the quality and availability of surface drinking water for people within the Midwest Landscape. It prioritizes areas based on proximity to regionally extensive aquifer systems that have the potential to be used as a drinking water source. Pixels can take the following values: 1 - Principal, alluvial, or glacial aquifer, not a natural asset 2 - Principal, alluvial, or glacial aquifer, natural asset Selection This indicator was chosen as a targetable, important feature of the MLI goals that will be used to track conditions over time and prioritize areas for conservation. Indicators were defined through elicitation and prioritization exercises with federal and state participants. Criteria for the indicators includes 1) actionable, 2) measurable, 3) relevant to multiple groups across the region, and/or 4) representative of other social and/or environmental values. Input Data & Mapping Steps This indicator originates from the USGS Principal Aquifers of the United States and the USGS Alluvial and Glacial Aquifers. To create this layer, MLI partners, members, and staff completed the following mapping steps: projected all input data to NAD83 (2011) UTM Zone 15N, merged the aquifer layers into a single polygon layer, convered the data to a 30m binary raster, and emphasized natural assets within each aquifer, leading to a raster with the following categories: 1- Principal, alluvial, or glacial aquifer, not a natural asset, and 2 - Principal, alluvial, or glacial aquifer, natural asset. Finally, we removed highly altered areas from this layer using our Highly Altered Areas mask. For full mapping details, please refer to the Midwest Conservation Blueprint Development Process . For a complete download of all Blueprint input and output data, visit the Midwest Conservation Blueprint 2026 Data Download .ArcGIS ImageMapLayerhttps://hub.arcgis.com/datasets/399a768ef14c4f08aff5fb0fb12ba5f3engU.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Open DataPublicWater Quality & Availability - Groundwater (Midwest Conservation Blueprint 2026 Indicator) [United States]Web servicesUnited States2026