FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY DOCUMENTATION
VERSION 2005

TITLE: SPECIAL OUTSTANDING FLORIDA WATERS

Geodataset Name: 	SPOWTR
Geodataset Type: 	SHAPE
Geodataset Feature: 	POLYGON

GENERAL DESCRIPTION:

This dataset contains boundaries for Outstanding Florida Waters as described in Section 62-302.700,F.A.C. that are designated as Special Water Outstanding Florida Waters categories.

DATA SOURCE(S):  			Florida Department of 
					Environmental Protection (FDEP)
SCALE OF ORIGINAL SOURCE MAPS:    	1:24,000
DATE OF AUTOMATION OR SOURCE:		1995
GEODATASET EXTENT:  			State of Florida

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES:

Datafile Name:   SPOWTR.DBF
 
ITEM NAME         WIDTH      TYPE     PRECISION  
AREA                18     DECIMAL        5                        
PERIMETER           18     DECIMAL        5                        
SPOWTR_              5     DECIMAL        -                        
SPOWTR_ID            5     DECIMAL        -                        
OFW_NAME            50     CHARACTER      -                        
OTH_NAME            40     CHARACTER      -                        
OTH2_NAME           40     CHARACTER      -                        
OTH3_NAME           40     CHARACTER      -                        
DISTRICT             3     CHARACTER      -                        
OFW_ID               4     DECIMAL        -                        
IMAGE1               5     CHARACTER      -                        
IMAGE2               5     CHARACTER      -                        
PLTBND               2     DECIMAL        -                        
ADJUST               3     CHARACTER      -                        
DESCRIPT            50     CHARACTER      -  

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES CODES AND VALUES:

item            item description
OFW_NAME  	OFW name as it appears in the Section 62-302.700, F.A.C., 
OTH_NAME  	extended name not fitting in the main NAME field- 
OTH2_NAME 	extended name not fitting in the main NAME field - 
OTH3_NAME 	extended name not fitting in the main NAME field 
DISTRICT  	Water Management District Jurisdiction 
OFW_ID    	Unique DEP OFW identifier 
IMAGE1    	Thematic Mapping scene containing OFW boundary 
IMAGE2    	Thematic Mapping scene containing OFW boundary 
PLTBND    	Mapping Extents boxes for plotting purposes 
ADJUST          Yes/No for Updates performed
DESCRIPT	Same as OFW_NAME above

USER NOTES:

Notes From FDEP:
EXPLANATION OF PROCEDURES USED TO TRANSFORM THE DATA
    (verbal description, algorithms, projection, commands, etc., as needed)
        The legislature of the  State of  Florida established a category of  
surface water features called "Outstanding Florida Waters" that are to be 
protected from  any degradation from their current water quality 
classification.  A description of the water features eligible for inclusion as 
an OFW and a list of  currently established OFWs is contained in Section 
62-302.700, F.A.C., (Attachment 4).  Additionally, "Waters" are defined in 
Section 403.031, F.S., as  "... rivers, lakes, streams, springs, impoundments, 
and wetlands ... including fresh, brackish, saline, tidal, surface, and 
underground waters."  Chapter 62-340, F.A.C.,  "Delineation of  the Landward  
Extent of Wetlands and Surface Waters" details the plants and soil types that 
indicate the existence of wetland or surface water, under authority granted in 
Section 373.421, F.S. 
 
        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.  
 
Special Water OFW Category  
        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.   
 
        The OFW Special Water boundary is based on the contour lines from the 
U.S. Geological  Survey 1:24000-scale quadrangle maps.  This boundary is 
labeled with the elevation of those contours that are most likely to meet the 
criteria of supporting obligate and facultative plants and hydric soils.  These 
elevations are 5 or 10 feet apart vertically, so that other information was 
used to modify the line.  Currently, the best additional information is a set 
of EOSAT satellite images from 1992.  The 1994 EOSAT imagery was also 
available, but because 1994 was an extremely wet year, the spectral reflectance 
values were judged less reliable. 
 
        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. 
 
In Spring '97, the data was converted from NAD27 to HPGN using the projection 
command within Arc/INFO version 7.0.4.
LIMITATIONS OF THE DATA / WARNINGS TO THE USER :
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. 
FGDL QUALITY ASSURANCE STATUS:
-  Tolerances were set to FGDL standards.
-  Added DESCRIPT item based on OFW_NAME

REFERENCES:

DATA LINEAGE SUMMARY:

see Notes From FDEP in User Notes section

MAP PROJECTION PARAMETERS

PROJECTION 				ALBERS
DATUM 					HPGN
UNITS 					METERS
SPHEROID 				GRS1980
1st standard parallel			24  0  0.000
2nd standard parallel			31 30  0.000
central meridian			-84 00  0.000
latitude of projection`s origin		24  0  0.000
false easting (meters)			400000.00000
false northing (meters)			0.00000

DATA SOURCES CONTACT(S):

Name:                   Department of Environmental Protection, 
                        Division of Water Resource Mgmt.
Abbr. name:             FDEP
Address:                Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection
			Twin Towers Complex
			2600 Blair Stone Rd., MS 2500
			Tallahassee, FL  32399-2400
Phone:                  (904) 488-0130                    
Web site:               http://www.dep.state.fl.us  
Contact Person:         
          Phone:        (904) 488-01309          

FGDL CONTACT:

Name:			Florida Geographic Data Library
Abbr. Name:		FGDL
Address:		Florida Geographic Data Library
                        431 Architecture Building
                        PO Box 115706
                        Gainesville, FL  32611-5706
Web site:		http://www.fgdl.org
Contact FGDL:
      Technical Support:	        http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfeed.html
      FGDL Frequently Asked Questions:  http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfaq.html
      FGDL Mailing Lists:		http://www.fgdl.org/fgdl-l.html
      For FGDL Software:                http://www.fgdl.org/software.html