U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service July 2007 vector digital data Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States. U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, DC. FWS/OBS-79/31. Washington, D.C. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Habitat and Resource Conservation http://wetlandsfws.er.usgs.gov This data set represents the extent, approximate location and type of wetlands and deepwater habitats in the Alaska, United States. These data delineate the areal extent of wetlands and surface waters as defined by Cowardin et al. (1979). Certain wetland habitats are excluded from the National mapping program because of the limitations of aerial imagery as the primary data source used to detect wetlands. These habitats include seagrasses or submerged aquatic vegetation that are found in the intertidal and subtidal zones of estuaries and near shore coastal waters. Some deepwater reef communities (coral or tuberficid worm reefs) have also been excluded from the inventory. These habitats, because of their depth, go undetected by aerial imagery. By policy, the Service also excludes certain types of "farmed wetlands" as may be defined by the Food Security Act or that do not coincide with the Cowardin et al. definition. Contact the Service's Regional Wetland Coordinator for additional information on what types of farmed wetlands are included on wetland maps. The present goal of the Service is to provide the citizens of the United States and its Trust Territories with current geospatially referenced information on the status, extent, characteristics and functions of wetlands, riparian, deepwater and related aquatic habitats in priority areas to promote the understanding and conservation of these resources. The wetland maps were produced as topical overlays using U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps as the base. The hard copy product is a composite map showing topographic and planimetric features from the USGS map base and wetlands and deepwater habitats from the Service's topical overlay. Thus, the data are intended for use in publications, at a scale of 1:24,000 or smaller. Due to the scale, the primary intended use is for regional and watershed data display and analysis, rather than specific project data analysis. The map products were neither designed or intended to represent legal or regulatory products. Comments regarding the interpretation or classification of wetlands or deepwater habitats can be directed to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Federal Program Activities, Branch of Habitat Assessment http://www.fws.gov/duspit/contactus.htm These data were developed in conjunction with the publication Cowardin, L.M., V. Carter, F.C. Golet, and E.T. LaRoe. 1979. Classification of Wetlands and Deepwater Habitats of the United States. U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, DC. FWS/OBS-79/31. Alpha-numeric map codes have been developed to correspond to the wetland and deepwater classifications described. These spatial data are not designed to stand alone. They form topical overlays to the U.S. Geological Survey 1:24,000 or 1:25,000 scale topographic quadrangles. Note that coastline delineations were drawn to follow the extent of wetland or deepwater features as described by this project and may not match the coastline shown in other base maps. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Although this Federal Geographic Data Committee-compliant metadata file is intended to document the data set in nonproprietary form, as well as in Arc/INFO format, this metadata file may include some Arc/INFO-specific terminology. 1977 present publication date Ongoing In Continuous Increments -171.321358 -117.414322 71.520821 53.966694 REQUIRED: Reference to a formally registered thesaurus or a similar authoritative source of theme keywords. Wetlands Deepwater habitats Hydrography Surface water Swamps, marshes, bogs, fens United States Alaska None None. Acknowledgement of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and (or) the National Wetlands Inventory would be appreciated in products derived from these data U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Tom Dahl Division of Habitat and Resource Conservation mailing address

555 Lester Ave.

Onalaska WI 54650 USA 608-783-8425 608-783-8450 tom_dahl@fws.gov Topical overlay showing the extent and type of wetland and deepwater habitats. Microsoft Windows XP Version 5.1 (Build 2600) Service Pack 2; ESRI ArcCatalog 9.2.2.1350 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Serivce, National Wetlands Inventory Various Version 1.0 Washington, D.C. USA U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The source data was checked using standard review procedures. Attributes were checked by using visual inspection as well as automated verification routines. Quality of the attribute information varies with age and mapping protocols used when individual maps were prepared All polygons are attributed. Polygon and chain-node topology are present. Every polygon has a label. This data set represents the extent of wetlands and deepwater habitats that can be determined with the use of remotely sensed data and within the timeframe for which the maps were produced. Wetlands are shown in Alaska, United States. The accuracy of image interpretation depends on the quality of the imagery, the experience of the image analysts, the amount and quality of the collateral data, and the amount of ground truth verification work conducted. There is a margin error inherent in the use of imagery, thus detailed on-the-ground inspection of any particular site, may result in revision of the wetland boundaries or classification, established through image analysis. Wetlands or other mapped features may have changed since the date or the imagery and/or field work. There may be occasional differences in polygon boundaries or classifications between the information depicted on the map and the actual conditions on site. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1977 to present National Wetlands Inventory Maps Washington, D.C. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1:24,000 and 1:25,000 Digital file and hard copy paper 1977 present Various dates Spatial information Original stable base hard copy maps of wetland and deepwater habitats were created based on USGS state and quadrangle boundaries. These maps were converted to digital files using various software packages (WAMS, ARC and others). The digital files were stored as ESRI Import/Export files corresponding to a single 1:24,000 USGS quadrangle. These digital files were imported and converted to ESRI Coverage format and checked for topological and attribute errors. All coverages were converted from a UTM map projection to an Alber's Equal Area map projection and the horizontal datum was converted from NAD27 to NAD83 were necessary. Polygons attributed as "Uplands" were removed from the dataset and polygons were merged at quadrangle boundaries where the quadrangle line divided polygons with the same attribute. The data was loaded into a seamless SDE geodatabase for the conterminous United States. These steps were conducted using both Arc Macro Language (AML) and ArcMap editing tools. All point data from the original ESRI Coverages were buffered by 11.28 meters (1/10 of an acre) and incorporated into this polygon feature class. Linear features from the original ESRI Coverages were merged at quadrangle boundaries where the quadrangle line divided lines with the same attribute. Linear data is stored in a separate feature class. Further data improvements included the conversion of all old wetland codes that contained 'OW' to the new code containing 'UB'. All polygons labeled as 'OUT', 'No Data' and 'NP' were removed from the database. NWI The file was converted to NAD83 in geographic coordinates, and saved in geodatabase format. 200401 Metadata imported. Dataset copied. Metadata imported. Dataset copied. Server=Igsarchwdbgis01; Service=5151; User=NWIDBA; Version=NWIDBA.NWIDATA Vector G-polygon 764607 Albers Conical Equal Area 55.000000 65.000000 -154.000000 50.000000 0.000000 0.000000 coordinate pair 0.000156 0.000156 meters North American Datum of 1983 Geodetic Reference System 80 6378137.000000 298.257222 1.000000 Explicit elevation coordinate included with horizontal coordinates WETDBA.AK_wet_poly Reference: Cowardin et al. 1979 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service OBJECTID Internal feature number. ESRI Polygon 2-dimensional element. ESRI GIS software ATTRIBUTE QAQC_CODE SHAPE Feature geometry. ESRI Coordinates defining the features. WETLAND_TYPE ACRES DECODE GLOBALID SHAPE.AREA SHAPE.LEN U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Tom Dahl Division of Habitat and Resource Conservation mailing address

555 Lester Ave.

Onalaska WI 54650 USA 608-783-8425 608-783-8450 tom_dahl@fws.gov Hard copy maps can be purchased through Cooperator-Run Distribution Centers. Each Center establishes its own pricing structure, product types and order procedures. View Cooperator-Run Distribution Centers. The wetlands data can also be viewed by accessing The National Map. Downloadable Data Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, no warranty expressed or implied is made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the utility of the data on any other system, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. No responsibility is assumed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the use of these data. ESRI Shapefile or Personal Geodatabase http://wetlandsfws.er.usgs.gov/NWI/download.html CD-ROM or DVD tar There is no charge for the online option. Requests for large amounts of data are handled on a cost reimbursable basis. To order files on CD-ROM, please see present 20070711 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Tom Dahl Division of Habitat and Resource Conservation mailing address

555 Lester Ave.

Onalaska WI 54650 USA 608-783-8425 608-783-8450 tom_dahl@fws.gov FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001-1998 local time None Unclassified None http://www.esri.com/metadata/esriprof80.html ESRI Metadata Profile http://www.esri.com/metadata/esriprof80.html ESRI Metadata Profile