Data used to model and map manganese in the Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain aquifer system, eastern USA

Data used to model and map manganese concentrations in groundwater in the Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain (NACP) aquifer system, eastern USA, are documented in this data release. The model predicts manganese concentration within four classes and is based on concentration data from 4492 wells. The well data were compiled from U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Suffolk County Water Authority (Suffolk County, New York), and state agency sources. The four concentration classes are based on guidelines for drinking water quality: below detection (class 1, less than 10 micrograms per liter (ug/L)); detected but less than the aesthetic guideline of 50 ug/L (class 2); greater than the aesthetic guideline but less than the health guideline of 300 ug/L (class 3); and greater than the health guideline of 300 ug/L (class 4). The thresholds of 50 ug/L and 300 ug/L are a Secondary Maximum Contaminant Level and a lifetime health advisory, respectively, from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for public water supplies. The model is built with the XGboost machine learning method. Explanatory variables (predictors) include well depth, soil characteristics, hydrologic variables, groundwater residence time, and predicted values of pH and of the probability of low dissolved oxygen from previous machine learning models of the aquifer system. The data are provided in data tables, raster files, and model files, organized as follows. One data table describes the 27 explanatory variables used in the model (NACP_Mn_explanatory_variables.csv). There is a data table for the well data used to develop the models, which includes the manganese concentrations, concentration classes, regional aquifer, explanatory variables, and predicted concentration class for the wells (NACP_Mn_well_data.csv). There is a compressed group (zip file) of 10 files (one for each regional aquifer) for explanatory variable data used to make predictions for the regional aquifers (NACP_Mn_prediction_input_aquifers.zip). There are two zip files providing model output, one for predictions made for each aquifer in text format and one for tif-format rasters of predictions for each aquifer. The data release also contains a tif-format raster file of the prediction grid and a zip file with the model object file (R data format) and a script that can be used to run the model to produce the predictions provided in this data release. Filenames for prediction input and for model output are distinguished by codes abbreviating the aquifer name and position in the vertical stack of 19 regional aquifers and confining units, as follows: Surficial aquifer, 1surf; Upper Chesapeake aquifer, 3upch; Lower Chesapeake aquifer, 5loch; Piney Point aquifer, 7pipt; Aquia aquifer, 9aqia; Monmouth - Mt. Laurel Aquifer, 11moml; Matawan aquifer, 13mtwn; Magothy Aquifer, 15mgty; Potomac-Patapsco aquifer, 17popt; Potomac-Patuxent aquifer, 19popx. The nine confining units are not represented in the model or predictions.