NOAA's Coastal Protection and Restoration Division: Watershed Database and Mapping Projects

Protection and restoration of coastal watersheds requires the synthesis of complex environmental issues. Contaminated site remediation, dredging and disposal of contaminated sediments, and restoring injured habitats are a few of the challenges facing coastal managers. The evaluation of multiple environmental issues can be significantly improved by combining scientific data and watershed characteristics into a Geographic Information System (GIS).NOAA's Coastal Protection and Restoration Division (CPRD) has developed decision-support tools for specific watersheds around the country that combine the use of a standard database structure, database-mapping application, and GIS. CPRD Watershed Database & Mapping Projects facilitate sediment and tissue chemistry and bioeffects data, natural resources, and potential habitat restoration projects to be overlaid on a watershed's features and land uses, and displayed on maps at flexible spatial scales. This approach simplifies data analysis and presentation, provides valuable tools for complex decision-making, and improves our understanding of dynamic aquatic ecosystems.

NOAA has developed Watershed Projects for 20 or more watersheds affected by contaminant releases. All CPRD Watershed Projects utilize a standard structure along with information tailored to the major objectives of each watershed project. The common organizational structure for data and spatial information promotes data sharing among Federal, state, local agencies and communities working within a watershed.The ability to integrate remedial investigation data with recent data in a single system helps investigators associate the distribution of contaminants with specific sources and evaluate the possibility of contaminant effects in potential habitat restoration areas. Combining restoration information and contaminant distributions across the watershed enhances the potential for successful restoration of wide-ranging populations. This versatile tool not only improves NOAA's ability to protect and restore biodiversity of watersheds that contribute to healthy coastal habitats, but also has the potential to help address other important environmental issues.

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The Watershed Projects run on standard desktop Microsoft Windows-based personal computers. The database and mapping application, Query Manager, is an easy-to-use, interactive system that allows you to query the database and rapidly display the results on a map in MARPLOT or deliver the data in the appropriate form to an ArcView GIS or ArcGIS project. In addition, both standard and customized basemaps are developed in ArcView to support all Watershed Projects. Standard layers include wetlands and other habitat data, NOS shorelines and navigation products, federal and state regulated industrial facilities including hazardous waste sites. These standard layers as well as custom imagery and other site-specific spatial data layers are also routinely used with data extracted from the Query Manager database.

Standard layers include wetlands and other habitat data, NOS shorelines and navigation products, federal and state regulated industrial facilities including hazardous waste sites, sediment chemistry, subsurface sediment chemistry, tissue chemistry, and sediment characteristics. Attributes vary considerable between projects and are dependent upon watershed site characteristics and the research conducted.

Varies. Detailed citations are provided with each individual Watershed Project database.

The user assumes all risks related to using these data. NOAA/CPRD is providing these data "as is", and NOAA/CPRD disclaims any and all warranties, whether expressed or implied, including (without limitation) any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will NOAA/CPRD be liable to you or to any third party for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary damages or lost profit resulting from any use or misuse of these data.Reference to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trade mark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by NOAA/CPRD. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of NOAA/CPRD, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

A limited number of Watershed Projects are available on CR-ROM. These CD-ROMs are formatted for use on Microsoft Windows computers.To order CDs, print (http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/topic_subtopic_entry.php?RECORD_KEY%28entry_subtopic_topic%29=entry_id,subtopic_id,topic_id&entry_id(entry_subtopic_topic)=153&subtopic_id(entry_subtopic_topic)=36&topic_id(entry_subtopic_topic)=2), complete, and then fax the order form to 206-526-4442 (secure fax), attention Order Department. Cost of the CD-ROM is $10. Our preferred payment method is by any of the following credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express.;

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The user assumes all risks related to using these data. NOAA/CPRD is providing these data "as is", and NOAA/CPRD disclaims any and all warranties, whether expressed or implied, including (without limitation) any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. In no event will NOAA/CPRD be liable to you or to any third party for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary damages or lost profit resulting from any use or misuse of these data.Reference to any specific commercial products, process, or service by trade name, trade mark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by NOAA/CPRD. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of NOAA/CPRD, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

Microsoft Windows 2000 Version 5.0 (Build 2195) Service Pack 3; ESRI ArcCatalog 8.2.0.700

The attribute accuracy is estimated to be "good", given the data-input methodology, the quality control review sessions, and the digital logical consistency checks.

The positional accuracy is based on the source data, which varies by Watershed Project location. Sediment sampling location positions at each site are presented "as is". The positional accuracy is dependent upon the standards used by the individual organizations that wrote the reports or delivered electronic source files. The CPRD has compiled these reports into the Watershed Projects database, without re-evaluating positional accuracy.

Watershed Project databases are designed to facilitate easy updates. It is intended that each individual database will be updated as restoration and/or future site monitoring occur.

A multi-stage error checking process is used to verify both attribute accuracy and logical consistency throughout data production. This process includes multiple automated logical consistency checks that test the files for missing or duplicate data, rules for proper coding, GIS topological consistencies.