NHD Stewardship in Minnesota NHD Stewardship Conference Denver, Colorado April 24, 2007

National Environmental Information Exchange Network (NEIEN)  Program of the EPA Office of Environmental Information  Improve exchange and reporting of environmental information  Streamline data processes  Develop interchange standards  Data sent through Central Data Exchange (CDX) at EPA  Data ‘Flows’ include: Water quality, air quality, regulated facilities; previous flows mostly non- GIS

Hydrographic Event Data Flows and NHD Update Projects  Project 1: ‘Flow’ exchange data relating to Clean Water Act reporting to EPA; 305(b) and 303(d) = ‘Integrated Reporting’ – agency business data ‘Flow’ exchange data relating to Clean Water Act reporting to EPA; 305(b) and 303(d) = ‘Integrated Reporting’ – agency business data ‘Flow’ GIS component of Integrated Reporting – NHD-based Stream and Waterbody Events representing water quality Assessment Units ‘Flow’ GIS component of Integrated Reporting – NHD-based Stream and Waterbody Events representing water quality Assessment Units  Project 2: ‘Flow’ of NHD data and NHD Updates ‘Flow’ of NHD data and NHD Updates

Participating Agencies  Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Land Management Information Center  EPA Office of Water and Office of Environmental Information  USGS – NHD Team and MN  Indus Corporation and Horizon Systems  Minnesota Governor’s Council of Geographic Information  Other Mn Agencies – DNR, Metropolitan Council, SARC

Land Management Information Center  Geographic Data Clearinghouse – data documentation and distribution  Standards and Coordination  Coalitions to build databases  Support for Governors’ Council on Geographic Information; Hydrography Committee  Project Services Team  Software Development

MnRAD – Minnesota Reach Address Database  Trusted source of NHD data for Minnesota  Close cooperation with USGS NHD Team  Replicates a subset of USGS NHD database  Contains NHD linework, NHD events, and local events  Provides local events to EPA’s Reach Address Database – WATERS system

The Minnesota Stewardship Model  Hands-on stewardship model  Steward local review of NHD updates  Build a robust set of local events  NHD Updates trigger migration of events  Events need to stay in sync with NHD  Users need to extract synchronized NHD, NHD events, local events

The Minnesota NHD Maintenance Process

USGS - NHDMnRAD StewardMnRAD User Distribution Database Production Database Mn Distribution Database Mn Production Database Pgdb, shapefiles, direct use NHDGeoEdit, Indexing Tools, ArcGIS via IMS, ArcIMS

The Minnesota Event Maintenance Process

MnRAD Components  Extract & Website  Load/Validate/ Reconcile (not Post)  Update  NHDTrans  Event Processing

The LMIC Implementation

Using NHD in Minnesota MPCA – water quality monitoring, tracking, reporting

Using NHD in Minnesota MPCA – Environmental Data Access

Using NHD in Minnesota  Planned NHD Use: LMIC – will replace current hydrography layers into mapping applications. LMIC – will replace current hydrography layers into mapping applications. Metropolitan Council – extensive collection of potential ‘events’; test revisions of NHD for Twin Cities Metropolitan Council – extensive collection of potential ‘events’; test revisions of NHD for Twin Cities

NHD Values  NHD as a tool for data integration  Nationwide coding and numbering system, nationwide addressing system, cross- border consistency  Common reference system & indexing  Tools, research, support  Management model – NSDI/MSDI

Encouraging NHD Use  Mn DNR – created base 24K layers that Mn NHD is based upon (Waters & Fisheries sections)  DNR Fisheries – Stream Surveys  Consulting services – depends on apps  Marketing, distribution into other mapping applications, find good applications  NHDPlus for high-res?  Can NHD do xxxxxx ??????

Our interest in conference  NHDGeoEdit tools, other peoples’ experiences  Background on NHD & map creation – from the source  What other states are doing – perspectives  Looking for ‘Best Practices’ for Update Activities (not just tools)  Inter-state coordination on border subbasins  Reality check

High-Res NHD Data in Minnesota  Built on DNR 24K streams and lakes 24K streams from 24K DRG’s 24K streams from 24K DRG’s 24K lakes derived from NWI (open water & fringe wetlands) – circ. 39 category 4 & 5 24K lakes derived from NWI (open water & fringe wetlands) – circ. 39 category 4 & 5  No swamp/marsh features; no points  Use NWI in conjunction with NHD?  Not consistent across state; borders  Issues: missing connectivity, how best to handle lakes and wetlands, ‘dual system’ and updating  Edits to encourage more use

NHD and Mn State Standards  Encourage NHD use by tying NHD to what went before  Governor’s Council standards re water features: Lakes (Basin standard) Lakes (Basin standard) Reach/Watercourse Reach/Watercourse Watershed/Hydrologic Units Watershed/Hydrologic Units

Lakes: NHD Waterbody ID, DOWLKNUM, Lake AUID’s  How Many Lakes? 10,000 10,000 12,841 12,841 14,000 14,000 15,291 15,291 24, ,000+

Minnesota planned edits  “Fixes” – topology errors, missing GNIS names NHD is pretty clean over our area of interest NHD is pretty clean over our area of interest  Most of our edits are planned enhancements that : Add missing features Add missing features Enable us to tie in other data Enable us to tie in other data Encourage more users of NHD by bringing in improved data Encourage more users of NHD by bringing in improved data Resolve NWI/lakes discrepancies; 2d-stream v. waterbody Resolve NWI/lakes discrepancies; 2d-stream v. waterbody

Data sources for Mn updates  DNR 24K streams redigitized by Fisheries to 1991 DOQ’s  DNR Public Waters Inventory Lakes  Orthoimagery: , 2003, 2006, Metro  National Wetlands Inventory  DNR Watersheds/Lakesheds (to HUC-14)  DNR LakesDB  Dams and Culverts

Possible Updates to NHD Flowlines  Updates from DNR 24K streams (Fisheries redigitized to match air photos)  Add connectivity (DNR lakeshed project)  Add ditch data  Add (or redefine) storm water flowlines  Long-term: evolve to just one 24K streams layer for all purposes

Disconnected NHD Flow lines Add DNR Lakeshed connectors?

Possible Updates to NHD Waterbodies  Add waterbody features for any MPCA AUID (EPA water quality assessments)  “Fix” waterbodies – where NWI derivation gives a result different from most sources (DRG, GNIS, DNR PWI) – lakes as hydrologic v. cultural features?  Resolve lakes/wetlands methodologies  Deal with changes in delineation: wet year v. dry year?; mining areas

NHD Areas – water level change: NHD Flow and 1991 DOQ NHD Flow and 2003 FSA NHD Flow, NHD Area, 2003 FSA

Changes in topography: Mining Activity – 1991 Mining Activity – 2003 Mining waterbodies

Goals  Encourage more people to use the NHD Enhancements to the data to meet more people’s needs Enhancements to the data to meet more people’s needs Build a larger catalog of event types Build a larger catalog of event types Keep events synchronized with NHD Keep events synchronized with NHD Keep synchronized with USGS Keep synchronized with USGS  Make NHD the layer of choice in Minnesota

After this conference  Continue with updates and MnRAD implementation  Take back what we learned here  Evaluate our supplementary data sources  Summit with other data providers & users  Outline best practices for NHD Minnesota updates  Start working with neighboring states