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