Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Joint Venture
2008a
). Most remaining RWB wetlands are privately-owned, although
the region also includes 30 state-owned Wildlife Management Areas and 61 federal
Waterfowl Production Areas (Rainwater Basin Joint Venture
2008a
; USDA Natural
Resources Conservation Service
2008
). As a consequence, the RWBJV has made
development of strong partnerships between private land owners, public agencies
and non-governmental organizations a high priority. Wetlands management focuses
on “wetland basins” that include associated uplands (primarily grasslands) and other
lands surrounding, and draining into, a wetland.
Wetlands management, like other types of natural resources management, must
be founded on comprehensive, up-to-date and easily-accessible data, and the tools to
manage and use such data. Consequently, one of the first objectives of the RWBJV
was to assemble key geospatial data for the region and to explore ways in which
geotechnologies such as GIS and remote sensing might be employed to enhance,
analyze and use these data for identifying and prioritizing areas of special con-
cern, promoting collaborative decision-making, selecting target sites for restoration
projects and developing long-term management plans.
7.3 Project Implementation
The RWBJV staff and project partners identified five major tasks upon which to
focus. The first priority was to identify and assemble existing geospatial data scat-
tered among a number of public agencies. Data covering the entire RWB were
desired where possible, but detailed data were required for 87 wetland basins.
Second, since existing data were known to have different formats, they would need
to be reprojected, registered to one another and clipped to the RWB region and to the
wetland basin boundaries. It was also deemed desirable to mosaic some datasets into
seamless coverages for the entire RWB study area. Third, it was clear that some key
data (e.g., land use and land cover) did not exist; consequently, new datasets would
need to be developed using satellite remote sensing. In addition, it was considered
important to explore how digital imagery, such as historical aerial photography,
might be used to augment other geospatial data. Fourth, it was required that a study
be undertaken to demonstrate how the geospatial datasets assembled could be used
to implement models potentially useful in management. Finally, all datasets devel-
oped, modeling results and documentation needed to be easily accessible to RWBJV
partners via the Internet.
7.3.1 Digital Database Assembly
The geospatial data assembled for the RWB wetlands and basins included:
•
Wetlands basin boundaries
•
USGS 1:24,000 quadrangle boundaries
•
USGS 1:24,000 digital raster graphics
