The NHD and the Future of Stream Mapping in West Virginia

1. The NHD and the Future of Stream Mapping in West Virginia Evan Fedorko West Virginia GIS Technical Center www.wvgis.wvu.edu Jackie Strager Natural Resource Analysis Center www.nrac.wvu.edu

2. Introduction • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Outline: • History of NHD Development in West Virginia • Overview of NHD status in WV • Local Resolution NHD Pilot Projects • Existing stream map: 24K NHD • Known issues • Need for upgrades/stewardship • What’s next: Stewardship and the future of NHD • Challenges • The Plan • How YOU can help!

3. NHD Status in WV • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) • NHD is complete in WV for: • Medium resolution (1:100,000 scale) • High resolution (1:24,000) • Local resolution NHD (1:4,800) • Pilot projects complete • Gauley • Upper Guyandotte

4. Local resolution NHD • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Local streams mapped from 2003 SAMB aerial photography and 3m DEM • Benefits: • Better cartographic base for local mapping • Captures changes in stream geometry, length • Status: • Pilot projects complete for Gauley, Upper Guyandotte watersheds in late 2008 • Not currently downloadable from USGS

5. LR-NHD Conclusions • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Two pilot watersheds completed • WV one of the first states to complete conflation using USGS’ new conflation tools • At this time, continued development of LR-NHD is not recommended. Reasons: • Issues with 1:4,800 source data – inconsistent inclusion of “special features” such as ditches and culverts • Comparative difficulty of conflation process • Propagation of HR-NHD errors • General lack of interest by the WV NHD community • The persistent generalization question • Continued changes in stream geometry

6. Evaluating the NHD • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • At this time, most complete statewide stream dataset is the 24K NHD (HR-NHD) • What can be improved in 24K NHD in WV? • Evaluation of the 24K NHD • Statewide review by WVDEP • Documentation of errors by NRAC, WVDEP • Case study of mining-related changes (Coal River)

7. Issues with 24K NHD • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Main issues: • Errors in geometry • Errors in attributes • Errors in NHD formatting, reach coding • Changes in stream geometry since streams were mapped • Source data for 24K NHD: • 24K DLG data • Topo map blue lines • GNIS names

8. Issues with NHD: Source data • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship NHD Source data: USGS Topo maps

9. Issues with NHD • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship Quantifying issues with the NHD Primarily based on WVDEP review

10. Issues with NHD • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship Quantifying issues with the NHD Primarily based on WVDEP review

11. Quantifying issues • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Quantifying 24K NHD issues as identified by WVDEP review

12. Geometry issues in NHD • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Stream updates needed due to: • Construction of dams, impoundments • Roads, highways • Ongoing mining-related alterations

13. Coal River case study • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Goal: Quantify amount of stream drainage change related to mining for southern WV watershed • Input datasets: • 24K NHD stream lines • 1:4,800 local stream lines • 2003 SAMB aerial photos • 2007 NAIP aerial photos

14. Original 24K NHD • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship

15. 2003 Aerial photos • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship 2003 Photo

16. Mining visible in 2003 • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship 2003 Photo

17. Aerial photos 2007 • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship 2007 Photo

18. Mining visible 2007 • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship 2007 Photo

19. Summary for 24K NHD in Coal Total: 4.1% of stream length NOTE: Similar analysis shows that 1.3% of mapped local scale streams were impacted by mining between 2003 and 2007.

20. Future of NHD for WV • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Goal: Establish a stewardship program for NHD in WV, including: • Ensure data updates and maintenance (immediate & long-term) • Develop procedures & policies • Identify principal steward, technical lead, sub-stewards, et al. • Steps taken so far: • Drafted a business plan for NHD in WV • Drafted an MOU between potential NHD steward and the USGS • Drafted a tentative plan – debuting today!

21. Business Plan • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Completed business plan for NHD in WV • Business plan includes: • History of the NHD • Local Resolution Development • Current uses/users of NHD in WV • A plan for NHD stewardship in WV • A draft memorandum of understanding between the USGS and a stewardship entity

22. Plan (1) • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Identify the principal NHD steward for West Virginia • MOU Signatory: WV Office of GIS State Coordination, Tony Simental • Responsibilities of the principal steward: • Sign MOU with USGS • Work with Technical Coordinator and Sub-Stewards to lead, fund and maintain an NHD Stewardship program

23. Plan (2) • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Identify the Technical Lead of NHD Stewardship for West Virginia: • West Virginia GIS Technical Center • Responsibilities of Technical Lead: • Trained to use USGS NHD Geo Edit tools – actively edits the NHD • Leads and coordinates stewardship efforts • Acts as the principal authority on stewardship issues • Coordinates sub-stewards and works to ensure best available knowledge is utilized to improve the NHD

24. Plan (3) • Identify a core group of sub-stewards • Candidates: Natural Resource Analysis Center, WV Department of Natural Resources, USFS – Mon National Forest, WVDEP – Office of Water Resources, et al. • Responsibilities of sub-stewards: • Trained to use USGS NHD Geo Edit tools • May participate in editing of NHD data • Fill in knowledge gaps

25. Plan (4) • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Work as a group with the NSDI and NHD liaisons to secure start up funding for NHD Stewardship • Tentative Plan: • WVGISTC and NRAC joint project with the goal of editing the NHD beginning with known errors (Slide #9) • Will also include analyzing HR-NHD lines and FEMA DFIRM flood zones and editing geometry (extent TBD) • Plan for the future: addressing the changes to hydro features in the coalfields

26. Plan (5) • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Develop a coordination framework for editing the NHD; emphasize: • Organized editing • Information sharing • Schedule an onsite NHD Geo Edit training session • At a minimum, technical lead and sub-stewards will participate

27. Plan (6) • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Convene a hydrographic data users group • Some suggested tasks and topics: • Develop a “best practices” document for NHD use within groups or agencies • Explore, document and promote NHD tools and software such as the Hydro Event Management Tool (HEM) • Identify and discuss NHD stewardship policy issues

28. Plan (7) • Introduction • Current NHD • Stewardship • Continue and expand the compilation of known errors to the NHD • Develop a methodology to receive potential edits from stewardship community, such as a web editing or web based problem reporting tool. • Several states have deployed or are developing similar tools; Vermont, Alabama, Texas, et al.

29. Discussion Natural Resource Analysis Center West Virginia University www.nrac.wvu.edu WV GIS Technical Center West Virginia University wvgis.wvu.edu