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Calwater 2.2.1 most accurately delineates true watersheds in mountainous terrain. However, neither Calwater 2.2.1 nor any of its predecessors is a "pure" watershed map because administrative boundaries such as the State border were used to delineate watershed areas. Some of the boundaries, particularly in developed valley areas, also have legal and administrative purposes other than the representation of actual drainage divides. Examples include the so-called "Legal Delta" (California Water Code, Chapter 2, the Delta, Sec. 12220) and other district boundaries. Neither is Calwater a legal map document, as it does not represent State of California Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) jurisdictions, officiated by the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) under California Water Code Section 13200. Calwater is a hybrid, a spatial cross-reference for use in local, State, and federal information communities.
The California Resources Agency (CRA) Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) contracted with Tierra Data Systems for the original digital production in 1993, based on Hydrologic Basin Planning Maps published in hardcopy (SWRCB, 1986). The State of California Stephen P. Teale Data Center GIS Solutions Group (Teale) under the direction of the California Department of Water Resrouces (DWR) and CDF, finalized the current version in ESRI ArcInfo coverage format in 1999 with USDA Forest Service and RWQCB/SWRCB inputs. The CRA California Spatial Information Library (CaSIL) is the current distributor of the coverage in the Teale Albers Conical Equal-Area projection, North American Datum of 1983. The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) authored Calwater attribution design and documentation culminating in May 2004 with this Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC-STD-001-1998) standard metadata.
Standardized watershed delineations, codes, and names from both State and federal systems are used primarily to map, analyze, and document water resources and water quality information and regulations. Examples include water quality reporting to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by SWRCB and Timber Harvest Plan tracking by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF). Applications also include regional planning, environmental analysis, hydrology, wildlands research, soils, agriculture, and fish and wildlife habitat management. Calwater is also useful in geographic information systems (GIS) and for online data retrieval. Calwater 2.2.1 and versions to follow are intended to provide a comprehensive geographic frame of reference for the California landscape.
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State Watershed Codes -- The Calwater Design
Calwater 2.2.1 is designed to divide the State into a series of six nested Levels of watersheds: Hydrologic Region, Hydrologic Unit, Hydrologic Area, Hydrologic Sub-Area, Super-Planning Watershed, and Planning Watershed (Table 1). The principal objective is to uniquely identify (by name or code) all described watershed polygons. As an evolving, integrated set of physical and administrative boundaries along with legacies of coding and naming, Calwater is not without its complexities and inconsistencies. Calwater's strengths are spatial accuracy and attribute versatility.
The following Tables are contained at various positions within this document. Search text for "Table
Table 0. ESRI ArcInfo Coverage Polygon attribute table (calw221.pat)
Table 1. Counts of Watersheds by Level
Table 2a, 2b. Valid cases of replicated watershed codes and associated acreages
Table 3. State and Federal Hydrologic Codes (HUC cross-reference)
Table 4. Calwater 2.0 (DWR) and Calwater 2.2 (CDF, SWRCB) Coding Differences
Table 0. Polygon Attribute Table Structure "calw221.pat"
COL ITEM NAME WIDTH OUTPUT TYPE N.DEC DESCRIPTION
1 AREA 8 18 F 5 Area of Polygon (square meters)
9 PERIMETER 8 18 F 5 Perimeter of Polygon (meters)
17 CALW221# 4 5 B - ArcInfo internal record number
21 CALW221-ID 4 5 B - ArcInfo user id (not used)
25 CALWNUM 12 12 C - Calwater Watershed ID Number (Interagency)
37 SWRCBNUM21 6 6 C - Watershed ID Number (SWRCB at Calwater v2.1)
43 HRC 2 2 C - Hydrologic Region Code (DWR)
45 HBPA 2 2 C - Hydrologic Basin Planning Area (RWQCB)
47 RBU 5 5 I - Concatenates HR,RB,HU into a single integer
52 RBUA 6 6 I - Concatenates HR,RB,HU,HA
58 RBUAS 7 7 I - Concatenates HR,RB,HU,HA,HSA
65 RBUASP 9 9 I - Concatenates HR,RB,HU,HA,HSA,SPWS
74 RBUASPW 11 11 I - Concatenates HR,RB,HU,HA,HSA,SPWS,PWS
85 HR 2 2 I - Hydrologic Region (1->10)(DWR)
87 RB 1 1 I - Regional Water Qual. Cont. Board (1->9)(RWQCB)
88 HU 2 2 I - Hydrologic Unit (00->~80)(SWRCB)
90 HA 1 1 I - Hydrologic Area (0->9)(SWRCB)
91 HSA 1 1 I - Hydrologic Sub-Area (0->9)(SWRCB)
92 SPWS 2 2 I - Super Planning Watershed (00->~30)(CDF)
94 PWS 2 2 I - Planning Watershed (00->~13)(CDF)
96 HRNAME 35 35 C - Hydrologic Region Name (DWR)
131 RBNAME 35 35 C - Regional Water Qual. Cont. Board Name
166 HBPANAME 35 35 C - Hydrologic Basin Planning Area Name
201 HUNAME 35 35 C - Hydrologic Unit Name
236 HANAME 35 35 C - Hydrologic Area Name
271 HSANAME 35 35 C - Hydrologic Sub-Area Name
306 CDFSPWNAME 35 35 C - Super-Planning Watershed Name
341 CDFPWSNAME 35 35 C - Planning Watershed Name
376 ACRES 4 12 F 0 Acreage of watershed polygon
380 HUC_8 8 8 I - Federal 8-digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC)
388 HUC_8_NAME 48 48 C - Name of Federal 8-digit HUC
436 HUC_8_ALT2 8 8 I - Second Overlapping HUC
444 HUC_8_ALT3 8 8 I - Third Overlapping HUC
452 DWRNUM20 12 12 C - DWR watershed identifier (Calwater v2.0 MOU)
464 DWRHUNAME 35 35 C - DWR Hydrologic Unit Name (Calwater v2.0)
499 DWRHANAME 35 35 C - DWR Hydrologic Area Name (Calwater v2.0)
534 DWRHSANAME 35 35 C - DWR Hydrologic Sub-Area Name (Calwater v2.0)
569 CDFNUM22 12 12 C - CDF Watershed ID Number (at Calwater v2.2)
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Table 1.
Calwater 2.2.1
Counts of Watersheds by Level
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Level Designation Count
1 Hydrologic Regions 10
2 Hydrologic Units 190
3 Hydrologic Areas ~ 522
4 Hydrologic Sub-Areas ~ 655
5 Super Planning Watersheds ~ 1623
6 Planning Watersheds ~ 6271
Note on Table 1: The Hydrologic Region is the
only Level fully subdivided into Hydrologic Units.
Other levels are partially subdivided and thus
computed counts of unique codes will vary.
The total of polygons at v2.2.1 is 7035,
the number of unique codes is 7008.
The total number of Hydrologic Unit names is 185.
See Logical Consistency Report.
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Non-Unique Codes
There are several cases of replicated names and codes where 'watershed' designations are cartographically 'fragmented' into multiple polygons. In these cases, each component polygon bears the same name and code (e.g. the Channel Islands chain, polygons 'split' by State and County borders, ground water basins, lake shorelines, etc). The instances of valid, replicated codes are presented below (Table 2a).
Table 2a.
Calwater 2.2.1. Fragmented ('split') Watersheds with
Valid, Replicated Codes by Level
Key:
Count = Number of watershed polygon fragments
RBU = R + B + U, where R = DWR HR numeric code,
B = RWQCB numeric code, and U = SWRCB Hydrologic Unit number;
RBUA = RBU + A, where A = SWRCB Hydrologic Area number;
S = HSA; P = SPWS; W = PWS; see Entity Attribute Metadata.
The Hydrologic Region is watershed Level 1.
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Hydrologic Unit, Level (2)
Count RBU Condition
2 1102 Oregon Border Split
3 3316 Channel Islands Split
8 4406 Channel Islands Split
2 4481 LA/Santa Ana Regional Split (5 polyons in RBU 4801 have same HUNAME)
2 4845 LA/Santa Ana Regional Split
2 6542 Ground Water Line Split
Hydrologic Area, Level (3)
Count RBUA Condition
2 33091 Federal HUC Split
2 33092 Federal HUC Split
2 33095 Federal HUC Split
3 55061 Federal HUC Split (Shasta Lake)
3 44061 Channel Islands Split
2 44063 Channel Islands Split
6 48451 LA/Santa Ana Regional Split
2 48456 LA/Santa Ana Regional Split
2 65424 Ground Water Line Split
2 96094 Nevada Border Split
Hydrologic Sub-Area, Level (4)
Count RBUAS Condition
2 330911 Federal HUC Split
3 440610 Channel Islands Split
2 440630 Channel Islands Split
3 480111 Federal HUC Split (East Coastal Plain)
2 440813 Point Mugu Lagoon - 2 parts
6 484515 LA/Santa Ana Regional Split
2 484562 LA/Santa Ana Regional Split
2 551423 Federal HUC Split
2 551425 Ground Water Line Split
2 552662 Federal HUC Split
2 551812 Federal HUC Split (Oroville Reservoir)
2 653721 Lake McClure Split
2 654241 Ground Water Line Split
2 755421 Isabella Reservoir
2 960942 Nevada Border Split
Super-Planning Watershed, Level (5)
Count RBUASP Condition
3 44061000 Channel Islands Split
2 44063000 Channel Islands Split
2 44081300 Point Mugu Lagoon - 2 parts
6 48451500 LA/Santa Ana Regional Split
2 48456200 LA/Santa Ana Regional Split
2 55062003 Lake Shasta Split
2 55062005 Lake Shasta Split
4 55062008 Lake Shasta Split
2 55142500 Ground Water Line Split
2 55222404 Stony Gorge Reservoir Split
2 96094200 Nevada Border Split
Planning Watershed, Level (6)
Count RBUASPW Condition
3 3309600404 Ground Water Line Split
2 3309700901 Ground Water Line Split
2 3309200003 Federal HUC Split
2 3309500403 Federal HUC Split
3 4406100000 Channel Islands Split
2 4406300000 Channel Islands Split
2 4408130000 Point Mugu Lagoon - 2 parts
6 4845150000 LA/Santa Ana Regional Split
2 4845620000 LA/Santa Ana Regional Split
2 5526620006 Federal HUC Split
2 5526620008 Federal HUC Split
2 9609420000 Nevada Border Split
Notes on Table 2a: 'Ground Water Line' refers to the delineation of Central Valley and Salinas Valley sediments that have historically defined divisions between valley and upland watersheds; 'Regional Splits' refer to watershed boundaries for County-related, administrative purposes; 'Federal HUC Splits' refer to a given State watershed overlapping a federal Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) boundary (in these cases, an 'artificial' line is inserted within the State watershed to enable accurate cross-references; other 'Splits' refer to the mapping artifact of having an otherwise whole watershed 'split' by State borders and other feature boundaries.
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Watershed Sizes
In Calwater 2.2.1, all ten of California's Hydrologic Regions are subdivided into a total of 190 Hydrologic Units. However, not all Hydrologic Units are subdivided into Hydrologic Areas, not all Hydrologic Areas are subdivided into Hydrologic Sub-Areas, nor are subdivisions complete at the Super-Planning and Planning Watershed levels. This is most strongly evidenced in the watershed polygon sizes within a given Level. For example, to track Timber Harvest Plan submissions, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) subdivided watersheds down to the Planning Watershed Level (PWS, code RBUASPW). The PWS design criterion was a polygon size of approximately 3,000 to 10,000 acres. In areas of minimal timber harvest activity, however (the Central Valley, South Coast, and deserts) CDF did not subdivide watersheds, but an undivided polygon still bears a PWS code structure, if not the actual PWS sub-delineation. One example is in the deserts, the Amargosa River watershed, whose actual polygon size is 1.6 million acres. As a general rule, a zero in the value for HA, HSA, SPWS, or PWS (unless it is a leading zero as in 01, 02, 03, etc) is an indication of the watershed being undivided at the subject Level, regardless of size. Some PWS watersheds exhibit 'skipping' of upper Levels (SPWS, HSA, HA) in their coding.
Watershed sizes also vary within the Hydrologic Unit (HU, code RBU) and other levels of the State and Regional Water Quality Control Board coding system. In the 1970's and 80's, published HUs and HAs were much smaller (more precisely mapped) in the South Coast than they were in the North Coast. Watershed size differences reflect, then as now, southern California population densities and associated water quality information requirements. For example, the Ventura Coastal Streams HU comprises 22,476 acres, whereas the Eel River HU (Humboldt, Mendocino Counties) encompasses over 2.6 million acres.
The representation of a given watershed may also be fragmented on the Calwater 2.2.1 map by the overlap of administrative boundaries. Table 2b presents some examples where watershed total acreage is the sum of the areas of its component polygons.
Table 2b.
Calwater 2.2.1 Examples of Total Acreages for Fragmented Watersheds
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Count CALWNUM Name [Field] Total Acreage
--------- --------------------- --------------------------------------------------- -----------------------
6 4845.150000 Central (Split) [Hsaname] 1944
3 4406.100000 Anacapa Island [Haname] 717
2 4845.620000 La Habra (Split) [Cdfpwsname] 12764
2 4408.130000 Point Mugu Lagoon [Hsaname] 358
2 4406.300000 Santa Barbara Island [Haname] 654
3 3309.600404 Sweetwater Creek [Cdfpwsname] 6551
2 3309.110000 Neponset [Hsaname] 73160
2 3309.700901 Crazy Horse Canyon [Cdfpwsname] 2281
3 5506.100000 Shasta Lake [Haname] 28170
2 5514.230000 Folsom Reservoir [Hsaname] 11026
3 5518.120000 Oroville Reservoir [Hsaname] 15470
2 7554.210000 Isabella Reservoir [Hsaname] 11506
2 9609.420000 Shoshone [Hsaname] 496814
Note on Table 2b: Count = Number of watershed polygon fragments.
Users must account for these and other cases when calculating
watershed acreages by summing individual polygon areas.
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Replicated Watershed Names
Calwater 2.2.1 also has several instances of replicated watershed names at various Levels, a legacy of State and Regional Water Quality Control Board maps (and an MOU by SWRCB, DWR and USGS in 1986). Version 2.2 of Calwater released by the Stephen P. Teale Data Center (Teale) GIS Solutions Group in September, 1999 indicated this condition with entries of the form "SAME AS HUNAME", "SAME AS HANAME", etc in watershed name fields. This update (Calwater 2.2.1, May 2004) contains the original names as published by the SWRCB and RWQCBs. In cases of replicated names, the watershed designation Level (HU, HA, etc) must be specified along with its name to avoid confusion (there is a known case of two HU code sets with the same HUNAME, SANTA ANA RIVER; see Logical Consistency Report). Users are also advised to reference Calwater's unique watershed codes (with noted exceptions, Table 2). The watershed code ulitmately provides the most reliable identification regardless of Level.
Cross-Referencing Challenges
Table 3 cross-references State of California Hydrologic Regions with federal Sub-Regions. Within the State system, DWR and SWRCB/RWQCB designations differ in the Central Valley and South Coast. In the Central Valley, DWR codes three Hydrologic Regions (HRs 5, 6, and 7), whereas the SWRCB codes a single Regional Board (RB 5). In contrast, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board codes three Hydrologic Basin Planning Areas (HBPA: SB, SJ, and TL) that roughly correspond to the three DWR HRs (also note that SB and SR both refer to the Sacramento River Basin). This situation is reversed in the South Coast: three Regional Boards are designated in DWR's one Hydrologic Region. Two other single-letter, historical codesets implemented in DWR Bulletin 130-85 "Hydrologic Data 1985" and in other DWR publications (Bulletins 118, 160, and 230) are listed for reference (but are not currently coded in Calwater 2.2.1).
Federal Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUC)
In Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUC), the federal system published by USGS (Water Supply Paper 2294, 1986), the nested hierarchy of watershed designations is generally similar to the State system. Differences in use of the term "Hydrologic Region" reflect changes in scope from the national to the state level. The federal HUC Hydrologic Region 18 (California) is defined as "...the drainage within the United States that ultimately discharges into the Pacific Ocean within the state of California; and (b) those parts of the Great Basin (or other closed basins) that discharge into the state of California. Includes parts of California, Nevada, and Oregon" (USGS, 1986, op.cit.).
At the State level, each of the ten California "Hydrologic Regions" roughly correspond to a HUC Sub-Region (Table 3). The widely-known HUC designation is an 8-digit code now called the "SubBasin" (Huc_8), roughly equivalent to the State's Hydrologic Area (HA). The SubBasin is also referred to as a "fourth field" watershed, where four 'fields' (2-digits each) progressively define watersheds from the Region (nationally) down to the SubBasin and smaller watersheds. The term "SubBasin" term replaced the term "Cataloging Unit" (CU) in the emerging Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) standard (per FGDC Proposal, Version 1.0: "Federal Standards for Delineation of Hydrologic Unit Boundaries"; Section 7.2.1, March 1, 2002); see also the Cross Reference section of this metadata).
At Calwater version 2.2.1, the "CU" field was renamed to "Huc_8" (FGDC / WBD, op.cit.). Associated fields formerly named "CUNAME", "CU2", and "CU3" were changed to "HUC_8_NAME", "HUC_8_ALT2", and "HUC_8_ALT3", respectively.
State - Federal Watershed Code Cross-Reference
Calwater 2.2.1 provides polygon-by-polygon cross-references to federal Sub-Basin codes in its ArcInfo Polygon Attribute Table (.pat), described in the Entity Attribute section of this metadata. Statewide, some 149 federal SubBasins map 1-to-1 with Calwater watersheds. Only 18 Calwater watersheds overlap multiple SubBasins; 5 Calwater watersheds overlap three SubBasins. An exception to the cross-reference design (the SubBasin listed in fields HUC_8 and HUC_8_NAME overlaps 80% or more of the State watershed) is the case of the SEAL_BEACH SubBasin. The majority overlap of the East Coastal Plain HSA is actually with the NEWPORT_BAY SubBasin (a third SubBasin, the SANTA_ANA, also has a minority overlap). This exception enables all of the names of federal SubBasins in California to be contained in a single field "HUC_8_NAME". Note that special 'patch' lines have been inserted into State watersheds to account for the major cases of federal HUC boundaries 'splitting' State watersheds, mostly in reservoir shorelines coded as 'watersheds' by SWRCB (see tables that itemize these cases).
Table 3. State and Federal Hydrologic Codes
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Key
HR: DWR Hydrologic Region (1->10)
RB: Regional Water Quality Control Board (1->9)
BC: DWR Basin Code (1-letter; Bulletin 130-85; Surface Water data)
AC: DWR Areal Code (1-letter; Areal Designation Map; Climate, Ground Water)
HRC: DWR Hydrologic Region code (2-letter acronym, various pubs.)
HBPA: SWRCB Hydrologic Basin Planning Area (2-letter acronym)
SUBR: USGS Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) Sub-Region; includes border States
---
HR RB BC AC HRC DWR HR Name HBPA SWRCB/RB Name SUBR
-- -- -- -- --- ----------------- ---- ----------------- --------------
1 1 F F NC North Coast NC North Coast 1801,1710
2 2 E E SF San Francisco Bay SF San Francisco Bay 1805
3 3 D T CC Central Coast CC Central Coast 1806
4 4 Z U SC South Coast LA Los Angeles 1807
5 5 A A SR Sacramento River SB Sacramento Basin 1802
6 5 B B SJ San Joaquin River SJ San Joaquin 1804
7 5 C C TL Tulare Lake TL Tulare Lake 1803
8 6 G G NL North Lahontan NL North Lahontan 1808,1604,1605
9 6 V W SL South Lahontan SL South Lahontan 1809,1606
10 7 W X CR Colorado River CR Colorado River 1810,1503
-- 8 Y Y -- (not defined) SA Santa Ana 1807
-- 9 X Z -- (not defined) SD San Diego 1807
HR SUBR Federal HUC Hydrologic Sub-Region Name (Remarks)
--- -------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 1801 Klamath-Northern California Coastal (incl. upper Klamath, OR)
1 1710 Oregon-Washington Coastal (minor CA portion of OR drainages)
2 1805 San Francisco Bay
3 1806 Central California Coastal
4 1807 Southern California Coastal
5 1802 Sacramento
6 1804 San Joaquin
7 1803 Tulare-Buena Vista Lakes
8 1808 North Lahontan (incl. portions of NV basins draining into CA)
8 1604 Black Rock Desert-Humboldt (minor CA portion of NV basins)
8 1605 Central Lahontan (includes Tahoe basin and portions of NV)
8 1712 Oregon Closed Basins (minor CA portion near Goose Lake)
9 1809 Northern Mojave-Mono Lake (minor NV portions included)
9 1606 Central Nevada Desert Basins (minor CA portion)
10 1810 Southern Mojave-Salton Sea
10 1503 Lower Colorado (includes CA portion west of Colorado River)
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Calwater Version History
Calwater version 2.2 is the third version of this dataset (after versions 1.2 and 2.0 and 2.1) and was based on 1:500,000-scale Hydrologic Basin Planning Maps published from 1973 through 1986 by the State Water Resources Control Board in Sacramento, California.
Version 1.2 was completed in 1995 by Tierra Data Systems, California, under contract to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF). Linework was captured by overlaying SWRCB Hydrologic Basin Planning Area Maps on 1:24,000-scale, 7.5' USGS quads and then redrawing and digitizing lines to match watershed boundaries interpreted from elevation contours. To the four existing SWRCB watershed levels: Hydrologic Regions (Level 1), Hydrologic Units (Level 2), Hydrologic Areas (Level 3), and Hydrologic Sub-Areas (Level 4), CDF created two additional levels to reference their Timber Harvest Plan tracking and other landscape analyses: the Super Planning Watershed (SPWS, Level 5) and the Planning Watersheds (PWS, Level 6).
In 1997, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) initiated adoption of only the first four Levels of Calwater 1.2 for maps associated with their California Water Plan updates of 1998. In addition, DWR worked with the Stephen P. Teale Data Center (Teale) GIS Solutions Group to integrate so-called 'groundwater lines' which define the perimeters of the Central Valley and the Salinas Valley. DWR and Teale also conducted extensive quality assurance on watershed delineation and coding, including inputs from the USDA Forest Service, principally the Klamath, Lassen, Mendocino, Shasta-Trinity, and Six Rivers National Forests.
The logical sequence for operational Calwater versions is 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.2.1. This is not an exact chronological sequence, as indicated above. Calwater 2.0 is not in operational use, its main purpose now is the documentation of interagency consensus on 4 Levels of watershed coding, and on watershed boundaries, names, and codes statewide, except the Central Valley floor and selected lakes and reservoirs. Calwater 2.1 represents the State Water Resources Control Board's Hydrological Basin Planning Maps, with boundaries, names, and codes as published in 1986, with modifications at the 1999 release of Calwater 2.2. Calwater 2.2 (1999) represents the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF) addition of watershed Levels 5 and 6 to the previously established 4-Level system of 1986 and 1998. The present version, Calwater 2.2.1, modified version 2.2 with database field additions and field name changes, and was subjected to documentation under FGDC-STD-001-1998. There are no boundary, name, or code differences between Calwater versions 2.2 and 2.2.1 (except some 'patch' lines that identify federal HUC differences).
In 2001, the USDI Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) also worked with the Forest Service and USDI Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to develop hydrologically correct delineations (see Watershed Boundary Dataset, WBD, in Cross References) using Calwater 2.2 as one of several sources.
Interagency Cooperation
Following a State of California interagency Memorandum of Understanding "Regarding the Use and Maintenance of the California Watershed Map" (finalized by the signatory agencies listed below from 1998 to 2000], the USDI Bureau of Reclamation, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA Forest Service, U.S. Geological Survey and other federal agencies continued to work with staffs of National Forests, BLM, Counties, Resource Conservation Districts (RCD), Regional Water Boards, the State's Interagency Watershed Mapping Committee (IWMC), and other interested parties to revise California watershed boundaries for conformance to national standards. Details on the Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) are in the Cross References section of this metadata.
Interagency Watershed Mapping (Calwater) Committee Members
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California Department of Water Resources (DWR)
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF)
California Department of Fish and Game (DFG)
California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB)
USDA Forest Service (USFS) Pacific Southwest Region (R5)
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
U.S. Geologic Survey (USGS)
USDI Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
USDI Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Region IX
Stephen P. Teale Data Center (Teale) GIS Solutions Group
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--End Supplemental Information
===================================================================================
-- The following excerpts describe the version of Calwater 2.2 released by the State of California Stephen P. Teale Data Center GIS Solutions Group in September, 1999.
Editorial comments [in square braces] by the California Department of Fish and Game, April, 2004 --
LIBRARY : CA
LAYER NAME : CALWATER22
COVERAGE NAME : CALW22A
COVERAGE DESCRIPTION:
The California Watershed Map (CALWATER version 2.2) is a set of
standardized watershed boundaries meeting standardized delineation
criteria. The hierarchy of watershed designations consists of six
levels of increasing specificity: Hydrologic Region (HR),
Hydrologic Unit (HU), Hydrologic Area (HA), Hydrologic Sub-Area
(HSA), Super Planning Watershed (SPWS), and Planning Watershed
(PWS). The primary purpose of Calwater is the assignment of a
single, unique code to a specific watershed polygon. While there
are 7022 polygons in the ARC/INFO coverage, there are actually
fewer watershed codes. This is due to cases of multiple polygons
bearing the same watershed code (Channel Islands, split polygons
due to other boundary integration, e.g. ground water basins).
Another confusing factor is that not all Hydrologic Units are
subdivided into Hydrologic Areas, not all Hydrologic Areas are
subdivided into Hydrologic Sub-Areas, and so on. Therefore, a
nominal count of watershed codes in Calwater 2.2 is:
Hydrologic Regions: 10
Hydrologic Units: 190
Hydrologic Areas: 522
Hydrologic Sub-Areas: 655
Super Planning Watersheds: 1623
Planning Watersheds: 6271
[see Version History above]
VITAL STATISTICS:
Datum: NAD 27 [updated to NAD 83 as of May 2004]
Projection: Albers
Units: Meters
1st Std. Parallel: 34 00 00 (34.0 degrees N)
2nd Std. Parallel: 40 30 00 (40.5 degrees N)
Longitude of Origin: -120 00 00 (120.0 degrees W)
Latitude of Origin: 00 00 00 (0.0 degrees)
False Easting (X shift): 0
False Northing (Y shift): -4,000,000
Source: 1:24,000 USGS Quad Maps
Source Media: Paper
Source Projection: Polyconic
Source Units: Meters
Source Scale: 1:24,000
Capture Method: Original digitizing by J. Kellogg
and staff (Tierra Data Systems)
Conversion Software: ARC/Info rev 7.2.1
Data Structure: Vector
ARC/INFO Coverage Type: Polygon, Line (Network)
ARC/INFO Precision: Double
ARC/INFO Tolerances: Fuzzy tolerance - 2 meters
Dangle Length - .1 meters
Number of Features: 7022 polygons [updated to 7035 as of May, 2004]
Layer Size: 30.5 megabytes
Data Updated: September 1999 [updated May 2004]
DATA DICTIONARY:
DATAFILE NAME: CALW22A.PAT
COL ITEM NAME WIDTH OUTPUT TYPE N.DEC
1 AREA 8 18 F 5
9 PERIMETER 8 18 F 5
17 CALW22A# 4 5 B -
21 CALW22A-ID 4 5 B -
25 IDNUM 12 12 C -
37 HRC 2 2 C -
39 HBPA 2 2 C -
41 RBU 5 5 I -
46 RBUA 6 6 I -
52 RBUAS 7 7 I -
59 RBUASP 9 9 I -
68 RBUASPW 11 11 I -
79 HR 2 2 I -
81 RB 1 1 I -
82 HU 2 2 I -
84 HA 1 1 I -
85 HSA 1 1 I -
86 SPWS 2 2 I -
88 PWS 2 2 I -
90 HRNAME 35 35 C -
125 RBNAME 35 35 C -
160 HBPANAME 35 35 C -
195 HUNAME 35 35 C -
230 HANAME 35 35 C -
265 HSANAME 35 35 C -
300 SPWSNAME 35 35 C -
335 PWSNAME 35 35 C -
370 ACRES 4 12 F 0
374 CU 8 8 I -
382 CUNAME 48 48 C -
430 CU2 8 8 I -
438 CU3 8 8 I -
446 IDNUM_20 12 12 C -
458 HUNAME_20 35 35 C -
493 HANAME_20 35 35 C -
528 HSANAME_20 35 35 C -
IDNUM : ID NUMber of watershed (DWR+SWRCB/RWQCB+CDF)
HRC : Hydrologic Region Code (DWR)
HBPA : Hydrologic Basin Planning Area (SWRCB)
RBU : Aggregate of HR,RB,HU
RBUA : Aggregate of HR,RB,HU,HA
RBUAS : Aggregate of HR,RB,HU,HA,HSA
RBUASP : Aggregate of HR,RB,HU,HA,HSA,SPWS
RBUAPSW : Aggregate of HR,RB,HU,HA,HSA,SPWS,PWS
HR : Hydrologic Region (1->10)
RB : Regional Water Qual. Cont. Board (1->9)
HU : Hydrologic Unit (00->~80)
HA : Hydrologic Area (0->9)
HSA : Hydrologic Sub-Area (0->9)
SPWS : Super Planning Watershed (00->~30)
PWS : Planning Watershed (00->~15)
HRNAME : Hydrologic Region Name
RBNAME : Regional Water Qual. Cont. Board Name
HBPANAME : Hydrologic Basin Planning Area Name
HUNAME : Hydrologic Unit Name
HANAME : Hydrologic Area Name
HSANAME : Hydrologic Sub-Area Name
SPWSNAME : Super Planning Watershed Name
PWSNAME : Planning Watershed Name
ACRES : Acreage of watershed polygon
CU : Cataloging Unit (Fed. HUC), overlap #1
CUNAME : Cataloging Unit name, overlapping CU #1
CU2 : Cataloging Unit, overlapping CU #2
CU3 : Cataloging Unit, overlapping CU #3
IDNUM_20 : Calwater 2.0 IDNUM (DWR dissolver)
HUNAME_20 : Calwater 2.0 HUNAME (DWR dissolver)
HANAME_20 : Calwater 2.0 HANAME (DWR dissolver)
HSANAME_20 : Calwater 2.0 HSANAME (DWR dissolver)
DATAFILE NAME: CALW22A.AAT
COL ITEM NAME WIDTH OUTPUT TYPE N.DEC
1 FNODE# 4 5 B -
5 TNODE# 4 5 B -
9 LPOLY# 4 5 B -
13 RPOLY# 4 5 B -
17 LENGTH 8 18 F 5
25 CALW22A# 4 5 B -
29 CALW22A-ID 4 5 B -
33 LEVEL 2 5 B -
LEVEL : Highest level of difference between right and left
side watersheds (e.g. 3 indicates different HAs)
IDNUM TO HUC CROSSWALK
Calwater maps fairly neatly to the federal Hydrologic Unit Codes
(HUCS). Generally Calwater watersheds fit within HUCs, though
there are some exceptions:
The IDNUM to HUC cross-reference was developed with the following
rules:
For a given [state] Calwater watershed, overlapping [federal]
Hydrologic Unit Codes (at the 8-digit Cataloging Unit [CU] level)
are listed up to a maximum of 80% of the Calwater watershed OR
three CUs, whichever comes first.
For example:
Where there are two CU codes (CU and CU2) listed for a given
Calwater code (only 18 [17] watersheds fit this criterion), the largest
CU alone overlaps less than 80% of the Calwater watershed, but
combining CU2 then provides overlap of at least 80% of the
Calwater watershed.
Where there are three CU codes (CU, CU2, and CU3) listed for a
given Calwater watershed (only 1 watershed fits this criterion,
[the East Coastal Plain HSA (Orange County), where
CU3 = 18070203, named SEAL_BEACH],
the largest 2 CUs together overlap less than 80% of the Calwater
watershed; combining a third CU code produces additional overlap.
Complete overlap statistics are left for calculation by the user.
If a watershed consists of multiple polygons (because it is split
by the groundwater line, the state boundary, or it is comprised of
multiple islands), the total area of the watershed (the sum of all
the polygons) is the value entered in the ACRES item
[in 2004 at Calwater version 2.2.1 (calw221) this was changed so that ACRES now contains only individual polygon acreages; this reduces risks of double counting areas].
The individual polygons of a multi-polygon watershed all have the same
watershed code. These cases are itemized below:
LEGITIMATE DUPLICATE CODES (MULTIPLE POLYGONS FOR A SINGLE
WATERSHED):
Hydrologic Unit Level
Count RBU Condition
2 1102 Oregon Border Split
3 3316 Channel Islands Split
8 4406 Channel Islands Split
2 4481 LA/Santa Ana Regional Split [see notes above]
2 4845 LA/Santa Ana Regional Split
2 6542 Ground Water Line Split
...
[Complete itemization in presented in Table 2a of this metadata]
DATA QUALITY ASSESSMENT:
The following are subjective comments regarding this data:
CALWATER boundaries were digitized on a 1:24,000-scale base and
thus very accurately divide surface water features depicted on
1:100,000-scale Digital Line Graph hydrography. However, CALWATER
delineations are primarily designed to be administrative reporting
units, and the boundaries should not be used to define
authoritative drainage area above a given point as a portion of
their definition includes non-physical boundaries, particularly in
valley floor and urbanized coastal regions. Attribute completeness
is good. Compatibility with existing state and federal watershed
delineations is good, except where explicitly different boundary
configurations are applied.
DOCUMENTATION DATE: September 1999
========================================================================
-- End Teale metatdata excerpts [DFG edits May, 2004] --
Calwater Status
On July 1, 2001 custodial responsibility for Calwater 2.2 was transferred, upon closure of Teale GIS Solutions Group operations, to the California Resources Agency in Sacramento. Efforts are underway as of 2004 to also host Calwater at a node of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) at the University of California Davis Information Center for the Environment (UCD / ICE). The current version is called Calwater 2.2.1 ("calw221") and is dated May 2004. The California Resources Agency's California Spatial Information Library (CaSIL) is the current distributor of Calwater.