re: Waterfalls - duplicate records in dataset

[aaarcher-usgs]

I will need to carefully filter the data because of duplicate records. The metadata .xml from SB states that any waterfall records that were closer together than 50 m were aggregated; yet, I randomly came across this example of a duplicated record:

Notably: If I were to be summing up the elevations through a spatial join with states, which I plan to do, I would be double counting these 15 ft for this one waterfall that has two duplicate records:

The possible solution might be to aggregate by the source name "Peterson-Falls-13253" or through NHD data- but will need to do this carefully to double check that this takes care of all duplicate records.

I would also like to look into why there are two separate World Waterfall Database record numbers in the screenshot above, yet only one page for this "Peterson-Falls-13253"

https://www.worldwaterfalldatabase.com/waterfall/Peterson-Falls-13253

[aaarcher-usgs]

Image showing mapping output for World Waterfall Database double verifying that there is only one "Peterson Falls" at this location (the falls to the NW are Montreal Falls)

[aaarcher-usgs]

Closing this issue for now, since I determined the impact on the final dataset is negligible. Much less impactful than the next issue, which is that the data release is grossly out of date...