FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY DOCUMENTATION
VERSION 2004
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