Most of the OFWs are contained within the boundaries of publicly-owned lands managed for conservation and/or recreation so that the extent of the water features that are protected can be defined by the legal boundary of the park, recreation area, preserve, or other publicly-owned property. Three categories of OFWs do not have boundaries so described: 1) the three river segments designated as wild and scenic under the Florida Scenic and Wild Rivers Program, federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and the Myakka River Wild and Scenic Designation and Preservation Act; 2) the 16 streams or lakes in the National Forests, and 3) the 56 streams and lakes defined as Special Waters.
As a portion of an Environmental Protection Agency Wetland Protection grant, a separate project to reduce the boundaries of the OFWs to a digital format was undertaken by the FDEP. Some digital data existed and was compiled from many different source formats and scales. These data were incorporated into a statewide coverage but because of the lack of documentation and concerns about accuracy, other approaches were investigated to improve portions of the data.
Other divisions within the FDEP have felt the need to develop digital coverages for the State-owned or managed properties they oversee and are in the process of reducing the legal descriptions on deeds into a digital form by interpreting and transferring the legal description to a quad sheet or using one or another of the COGO (COordinate GeOmetry) systems. These lands include the Aquatic Preserves and the State Park boundaries. Where possible, to minimize duplication of effort, the Division of Environmental Permitting either acquired the boundaries already created for the Aquatic Preserves, or entered into a joint venture to create boundaries for the 145 lands managed by the Division of Parks and Recreation.
Scale is an important factor in data usage. Certain scale data sets are not suitable for some projects, analysis, or modeling purposes. Please be sure you are using the best available data.
1:24000 scale data sets 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 data sets are recommended for projects that are at the multi-county or regional level. 1:250000 scale data sets are recommended for projects that are at the regional or state level or larger.
The streams and lakes that do not have defined legal boundaries were automated using methods other than transferring legal descriptions into a digital format. Because of the interpretive nature of the boundaries for the Special Waters Category, we have avoided making any implication that this line represents the ordinary high water line that separates the State-owned lands from privately-owned lands by referring to this line as a fuzzy boundary or trip wire. Final determinations of these boundaries will require on-site inspections or aerial photo-interpretations coupled with field verifications and will not be carried out for any of the streams and lakes designated as OFWs, in the short term. These interpretive boundaries were designed to alert persons making land use decisions that on-site inspections or further investigations by qualified soils scientists or botanists may be necessary. These interpretive boundaries are necessary because if a proposed activity falls within or near an OFW boundary, different, more stringent permitting review standards are imposed on the permittee's application.
However, other indications that the area inside the Special Waters delineation line is likely to meet the rule's criteria are the swamp symbols on the quadrangle, the change in slope that is indicative of the seepage line, or springs that indicate that the groundwater is near the surface at that elevation. Cultural features can also be helpful. Roads often stop at wetted areas and buildings are usually (but not always) built above the elevation of the water feature's most frequent floods. Similarly, railroads are usually built up high enough to stay dry. This information is generally discernible on USGS 7.5 minute quadrangles.
We have concluded that the Special Waters boundaries are provisional. Until we receive full funding to finalize this data, we will coordinate with our field staff to evaluate the boundaries, record needed changes, and make the appropriate adjustments to the boundaries as an on-going programmatic effort. These boundaries are stored in the OFWspec data layer.