U.S. National Atlas Water Feature Areas represents the water feature areas (for example, bays, glaciers, lakes, and swamps) of the United States.
A note about data scale:
Scale is an important factor in data usage. Certain scale datasets are not suitable for some project, analysis, or modeling purposes. Please be sure you are using the best available data.
1:24000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the county level. 1:24000 data should NOT be used for high accuracy base mapping such as property parcel boundaries. 1:100000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the multi-county or regional level. 1:125000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that are at the regional or state level or larger.
Vector datasets with no defined scale or accuracy should be considered suspect. Make sure you are familiar with your data before using it for projects or analysis. Every effort has been made to supply the user with data documentation. For additional information, see the References section and the Data Source Contact section of this documentation. For more information regarding scale and accuracy, see our webpage at: <http://geoplan.ufl.edu/education.html>
Outside the United States Please direct all inquiries regarding software/data pricing, sales, support, and consulting services to your local ESRI International Distributor. This information can be found at <http://gis.esri.com/intldist/contactint.cfm>.
For other questions or comments, you may contact ESRI headquarters by e-mail, telephone, or fax or write to us.
The shapefile is converted to SDC (Smart Data Compression) format using either ESRI SDC Data Development Kit Professional 2 (DDKP2) or tools in ArcGIS. The SDC data set is then loaded into ArcSDE® to verify and validate the geometry.
After processing, the data set is checked for drawing display and number of records and file sizes compared with source materials. Data completeness generally reflects the content of the original Digital Line Graph (DLG) files.
Some spatial features were added and corrected. Some name attributes were added or corrected. All occurrences of St. were changed to Saint. Extra spaces were removed from the attributes. Hydrographic features for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands were added. A minor adjustment was made to the shoreline in Galveston Bay, Texas. The linear water feature attribute value, Intercoastal waterway, was changed to Intracoastal waterway.