Toward a Coordinated Spatial Data Infrastructure for the Nation (1993) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A: Spatial Data and Wetlands
Appendix A: Spatial Data and Wetlands
Pages 127-168
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From page 127... ...
With respect to wetland data, a number of questions arise. For example, should a digital version of the National Wetlands Inventory (NWI)
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From page 128... ...
Next are described the technical, legislative, institutional, and economic impediments that limit the ability to assess and monitor the state and condition of its wetlands. This appendix also provides a conceptual information diffusion model that attempts to explain the issues that restrict the diffusion of wetland information.
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From page 129... ...
In a more practical sense, the term wetland is a misnomer: many are dry at times; some are dry twice a day, for example, coastal wetlands that are flooded, inundatecI, and influenced by daily tides. Wetlands include many different types of environments: tidal marshes, swamp forests, peat bogs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, and similar transitional areas between aquatic and terrestrial environments.
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From page 131... ...
APPENDIX A Wetland Distribution circa 1 780's ~~~ I~~ ~ l ~ 11 Lab °°°Q Wetland Distribution circa 1 980's .
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From page 132... ...
The amount of wetlands in the conterminous United States when settlement occurred in the early seventeenth century is estimated to have been 215 million acres (DahI, 1990~. On the basis of this
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From page 133... ...
, 53 percent of the original wetlands was lost by the mid-19SOs (DahI,1990~. Table A.l shows a selected state and regional view of wetland losses.
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From page 134... ...
Various conservation groups and the scientific community began convincing federal agencies and Congress of their value in preventing floods, filtering waters, and providing critical wildlife habitat. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 (often called the Clean Water Act)
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From page 135... ...
Making these conditions into operational definitions for regulations, administration, and biological mapping is another matter. If FWS's national wetland maps (begun some 14 years ago)
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From page 136... ...
Swampbuster Provision, Food Security Act of 1985 fFL.99-198) The term wetland, except when such term is part of the term converted wetland, means land that has a predominance of hydric soils and that is inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances does support, a prevalence of hydrophytic vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions.
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From page 137... ...
At present, 27 states have some form of wetland law: explicit wetland regulations, regulationsincluded in coastal zone management, or regulations included in other natural resource management provisions, such as shoreline, beach, and sand protection (Want, ~ 99 ~ ~ . Regulation of wetlands and their associated definitional requirements has become a complex regulatory arena with numerous juclicial decisions interpreting these regulations.
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From page 140... ...
The status of wetland data remains an open question. The Domestic Poligy Council-WetIand Inventory Workgroup was asked to address three related information questions: · What types of inventories are now being clone?
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From page 141... ...
The more recent debate over the provisions of the Federal Manualfor Identifying and Delineating Jurisdictional Uitiands (Federal Interagency Committee for Wetlands Delineation, 1989) is yet another example.
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From page 142... ...
142 I_ ._ Cd Cat 5 Ct Cat .O .e o .~ I_ ., of .
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From page 144... ...
As previously stated, our objective was to document the status of spatial data products and associated information technology that support decisions concerning the state and condition of the nation's wetlands. Specifically, the committee discovered a set of the major impediments to the creation of a national wetland information system: · Technical impediments: What are the nature and type of technical and scientific impediments that inhibit the ability to identify, collect, classify, automate, and integrate wetland data on a national basis?
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From page 145... ...
States based on the final wetland maps produced under this section" and "archive and make available for dissemination wetland data and maps digitized under this section as such data and maps become available." Another major impediment is the ongoing debate and differences of opinion over the reliability and validity of various wetland mapping techniques and procedures. Those responsible for the NW!
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From page 149... ...
. An excellent example of how this could be accomplished is Maryland's Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quad Mapping and Wetlands Inventory Program.
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From page 150... ...
FIGURE ^.3 DIglmloubopho~ (1:7200) 1nvon~ry tar wedandsth~ugh acooporadvepr~octby Maryland and1he U.S.Flshand W~dll~ Service.
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From page 151... ...
ISI ~ XIONEddY
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From page 152... ...
of 'spuel~a~osn~ms am ~u!
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From page 153... ...
· Establish baseline from which to measure changes Monitoring change · Quantify wetland losses and gains by type, size, geographic location · Quantify wetland modification · Determine effectiveness of regulatory programs · Quantify cumulative extent of wetland loss, gain, and modification over time Provide a tool for wetland Inanagement · Advanced identification or unsuitability determinations · Flood insurance (FEMA) determinations · Swampbuster determinations · Special area designations such as State Heritage Programs · Risk analysis (oil spill sensitivity)
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From page 154... ...
This estimate does not include associated costs of litigation Eat sometimes are also incurred by land owners. A more spatially robust and reliable information system such as that being implemented in Maryland would be helpful in reducing the uncertainty about jurisdictional wetlands and thereby reducing the costs associated with the permit process.
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From page 155... ...
Wisconsin explicitly requires the use of soil maps for a variety of lancl planning and management mandates, including state wetland cteterminations. This evolution from a data base for individual use by farmers for farm crop planning and voluntary soil erosion mitigation planning to regulating use of land based on the prior natural condition (i.e., hydric soils that are evidence of prior wetland conclition)
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From page 156... ...
Congress expanded its interest and authority in wetlands by the 1977 amendments to the Federal Water Pollution Act of 1972 that established EPA's and COE's authority to include all wetlands as part of the waters of the United States. Waters of the United States are defined in the National Pollution Discharge
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From page 157... ...
(1990) ~ 1:15,840 hydric spils i/ experimenting with Landsat TM and SPLIT Department of MFCMA Commerce- 1976 NOM Coastal Ocean l i/ TYDAC Program National Ocean ARC/INFO Service Coastal Zone GIS Management Department of CWA S.404 D~etlse i/ RAMS GRASS Corps of Engi- 1/ neers (COE)
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From page 158... ...
(Maxted, 1990~. As mentioned earlier, states have also taken responsibility for wetland protection associated with their public trust responsibilities.
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From page 160... ...
401 National Wetlands Inventory Project)
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From page 161... ...
This interaction, even though troublesome to the information community, in reality constitutes the implementation process, that process being the difference between the policy of no net loss and the political process of what society and private land owners are willing to endure. It is important that the information diffusion process be understood so that consistent and durable policy leading to an enhanced NSD} be formulated.
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From page 162... ...
would be stricter, requiring that land be inundated or saturated all the way to the surface for at least 14 consecutive days in the growing season (The State, [Columbia, S.C.]
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From page 163... ...
Once the definitional process deviated from agreed-upon measures in the federal manual, the status and condition of wetlands changed, if the national view is limited to those described as jurisdictional. If this limits the national view, then the usefulness of the NW!
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From page 164... ...
Without the reconciliation and interaction of the NWl, the FSA, and jurisdictional wetlands, and Congressional and public support for a composite federal view, the incorporation of spatial data and information about the nation9s wetlands into an NSD! remains problematical.
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From page 165... ...
(1992~. Maryland's Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quad Mapping and Wetlands Inventory Program, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Water Resources Administration.
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From page 166... ...
(1990~. Wetland Losses in the United States 1780's to 1980's, Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S.
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From page 167... ...
Remote Sensing the Nation's ULtlands The National Wetlands Inventory, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, Washington, D
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