Michigan Dept. of Environment, Great Lakes, and EnergyThis data set provides an estimate of annual groundwater recharge for each public land survey section in Michigan. Groundwater Inventory and Mapping Project, a cooperative effort between the Water Bureau - Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (now Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy), USGS - Michigan Water Science Center and Michigan State University - Institute of Water Research, RS&GIS and Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. This project was mandated by P.A. 148 (Michigan Acts of 2003). Major funding was provided by EGLE (MDEQ at the time), supplemented with additional funds from the USGS Cooperative Water Program. Public Law 148 required the MDEQ to obtain a map of state-wide groundwater recharge. The US Geological Survey and Michigan State University have created this data set to meet that need. Accuracy of the recharge estimate is estimated to be +/- 2.44 inches/yr in the western and northern Lower Peninsula, +/- 1.1 in/yr in the southeastern Lower Peninsula, and +/- 2.9 inches/yr in the Upper Peninsula. Areas in the eastern Upper Peninsula (Luce, Chippewa, and Mackinaw Counties) may have higher error because of relatively poor representation of specific geologic environments. Base flow separations were compiled 208 USGS streamflow gages in Michigan from those completed by Neff and others (2005). Within each region, an average recharge rate was calculated based on the baseflow yield. Residuals were computed for each streamflow gage. Watershed characteristics describing the geology, land cover, and general climate characteristics of the gaged watersheds were also compiled. These data were analyzed in Systat v.11 using a forward stepwise regression procedure to identify watershed characteristics that might be useful in predicting the value fo the residual. Within the eastern Lower Peninsula, the significant predictive variables, in addition to area, were: agricultural land use, urban land use, annual growing degree days, annual precipitation, and percent of the watershed underlain by lacustrine deposits. Within the western Lower Peninsula, the significant predictive variables, in addition to area, were: winter (December through March) precipitation, the percentage of the watershed underlain by till, and the percentage of the watershed occupied by forests. In the Upper Peninsula, the significant predictive variables, in addition to area, were: growing degree days and winter precipitation. Each of these predictive variables were calculated for each Public Land Survey section, the data used to predict a residual, then the residual added to the base recharge prediction for the region. Attribute Label Attribute Definition FID Internal feature number, Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated Shape Feature geometry, Coordinates defining the features AREA Section area in square meters PERIMETER Section perimeter in meters TWN PLSS Township RNG PLSS Range SEC PLSS Section COUNTY County ID Recharge_I Inches of annual groundwater recharge Neff, B.P., Day, S.M., Piggott, A.R., and Fuller, L.M., Base Flow in the Great Lakes Basin: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2005-5217, 23 p.ArcGIS DynamicMapLayerhttps://hub.arcgis.com/datasets/7571dd68765e4935908cce56bf91d9eb_8engState of Michigan Open Data PortalPublicEstimated Groundwater Recharge [Michigan]Web servicesMichiganLast Modified: 2025-09-24