Detailed Methodology for Inland Stream Assessment for Alaska

Key elements of the 2015 national assessment of stream fish habitats follow the 2010 assessment, including: 1) the idea that distributions and numbers fishes reflect the quality of habitat in which they live; and 2) human landscape factors pose a risk to the condition of stream habitat, and indirectly, to fishes. The 2015 inland stream assessments for the contiguous United States, Alaska, and Hawaii all followed five broad steps (Figure 1) that are described in detail below for the inland stream assessment for Alaska. Note that analytical details for the Alaska assessment differed in southeast Alaska as compared to the remainder of the state (referred to as greater Alaska) due to differences in the resolution of...

Tags: 2015, Alaska, Method

Detailed Methodology for Inland Stream Assessment for Alaska (Step 3)

Accounting for natural variation With the exception of differences in spatial units, assessments for greater Alaska and southeast Alaska were conducted similarly across regions. Because stream fish assemblage data were not available for the state, no steps were taken to account for natural variation in stream habitats for either southeast or greater Alaska. This represents an important need for future work.

Tags: 2015, Alaska, Method

National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP) 2015 Cumulative Habitat Condition Scores and Disturbance Indices Linked to HUC 12 Watersheds in Alaska of the Watershed Boundary Dataset

This shapefile contains fish habitat condition index (HCI) scores as well as specific disturbance indices for 6th level Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC12) watersheds of the Watershed Boundary Dataset. The source datasets compiled and attributed to spatial units were identified as being: (1) meaningful for assessing fluvial fish habitat; (2) consistent across the entire study area in the way that they were assembled; (3) broadly representative of conditions in the past 10 years, and (4) of sufficient spatial resolution that they could be used to make valid comparisons among HUC12 units. In this data set, variable summaries are linked to HUC12 watersheds developed for the Watershed Boundary Dataset downloaded on March 18,...

Categories: Data; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, Map Service; Tags: 2015 National Assessment, 2015 National Assessment, DataProduct, Direct habitat alteration, Environmental condition, All tags... Habitat Characterization, Lotic, NFHP, NFHP Cooperator, Spatial Data, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), Visual, Watershed Boundary Dataset, drainage basins, environmental assessment, inlandWaters, watershed, Fewer tags

Detailed Methodology for Inland Stream Assessment for Alaska (Step 4)

Identifying disturbances to fish habitat The approach for identifying disturbances to fish habitat was based on the assumption that greater intensities and types of human landscape disturbances would most likely lead to more disturbed stream fish habitat (e.g., Danz et al. 2007, Esselman et al. 2011). Twenty-two human landscape variables were identified for the Alaska assessment, with 21 variables used in the southeast and 19 in greater Alaska. We grouped variables into six sub-indices representing specific types of disturbances including: urban land use, agricultural land use, stream fragmentation, point source pollution, infrastructure, and active mines. Each sub-index of disturbance was represented by 2 to...

Tags: 2015, Alaska, Method

Detailed Methodology for Inland Stream Assessment for Alaska (Step 2)

Integrating data into a spatial framework Greater Alaska For most of Alaska excluding the southeast portion of the state, watershed boundaries for individual stream reaches were unavailable, and the highest resolution spatial units available for assessment were 12-digit USGS hydrological units (HUC-12s). Greater Alaska includes 12,824 HUC-12s that partially follow watershed boundaries; however, boundaries are also intended to capture roughly similarly-sized regions vs. entire upstream landscape areas draining to streams (Figure 11). After acquiring data, variables were attributed to HUC-12s for the greater Alaska assessment. Southeast Alaska For the southeast portion of Alaska, watersheds were delineated from...

Tags: 2015, Alaska, Method

National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP) 2015 Cumulative Habitat Condition Scores and Disturbance Indices Linked to Catchments of Southeast Alaska

This shapefile contains cumulative fish habitat condition index (HCI) scores as well as specific disturbance indices for local and network catchments of Southeast Alaska. Catchments were created in support of Jared Ross's Master’s thesis. The source datasets compiled and attributed to spatial units were identified as being: (1) meaningful for assessing fluvial fish habitat; (2) consistent across the entire study area in the way that they were assembled; (3) broadly representative of conditions in the past 10 years, and (4) of sufficient spatial resolution that they could be used to make valid comparisons among local catchment units. Citations: Ross, J.A. Influences of timber management and natural landscape factors...

Categories: Data; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, Citation, Map Service; Tags: 2015 National Assessment, 2015 National Assessment, DataProduct, Direct habitat alteration, Environmental condition, All tags... Habitat Characterization, Lotic, NFHP, NFHP Cooperator, NHDHR, Regional Assessment, Spatial Data, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), Visual, drainage basins, environmental assessment, inlandWaters, watershed, Fewer tags

National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP) 2015 Cumulative Habitat Condition Indices with Limiting and Severe Disturbances for the Conterminous United States linked to NHDPlusV1 v2.0

This CSV file contains cumulative fish habitat condition index (HCI) scores generated for river reaches of the conterminous United States as well as indices generated specifically for four spatial units including local and network catchments and 90 m local and network buffers of river reaches. Note that the cumulative HCI score is determined from limiting index scores generated for the four spatial units listed above. Detailed methods for calculating cumulative fish habitat condition index scores as well as the indices for each spatial extent can be found on the following website: http://assessment.fishhabitat.org/: The variables used to create indices in catchments vs. buffers differ due to differences in resolution...

Categories: Data; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, Map Service; Tags: 2015 National Assessment, 2015 National Assessment, Alabama, Anthropogenic factors, Aquatic habitats, All tags... Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Direct habitat alteration, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Habitat Characterization, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Landscape, Landscape Ecology, Limiting factors, Lotic, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, NFHP Cooperator, NHDPlusV1, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Spatial Data, Tennessee, Texas, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), Utah, Virginia, Visual, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, anthropogenic disturbance, biota, environmental assessment, habitat alteration, habitat condition, inlandWaters, Fewer tags

Dam Metrics Representing Stream Fragmentation and Flow Alteration for the Conterminous United States Linked to the NHDPLUSV1

This CSV file contains 21 dam metrics representing stream fragmentation and flow alteration for nearly 2.3 million stream reaches in the conterminous USA. Dam metrics fall into four main categories: segment-based, count and density, distance-based, and cumulative reservoir storage (described below). These data were developed using spatially verified large dam locations (n=49,468) primarily from the National Anthropogenic Barrier Dataset (NABD) that were spatially linked to the National Hydrography Dataset Plus version 1 (NHDPlusV1). These dam metrics have been summarized using the unique identifier field native to the NHDPlusV1 (COMID) which can be used to join this table to spatial layers and data tables of the...

Categories: Data; Types: Citation; Tags: 2015 National Assessment, 2015 National Assessment, 2015 National Assessment, Alabama, Arizona, All tags... Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Connectivity, DataProduct, Delaware, Direct habitat alteration, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hydrologic alteration, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Lotic, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, NCCWSC, NHDPlusV1, National Assessment, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, NoVisual, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Spatial Data, Tennessee, Texas, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, barriers, dams, drainage basins, environmental assessment, river basin, river reaches, streams, Fewer tags

National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP) 2015 Human Disturbance Data for Alaska linked to HUC12 Watersheds

This CSV file contains landscape factors representing anthropogenic disturbances to stream habitats summarized within 6th level Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC12) watersheds of the Watershed Boundary Dataset. The source datasets compiled and attributed to spatial units were identified as being: (1) meaningful for assessing fluvial fish habitat; (2) consistent across the entire study area in the way that they were assembled; (3) broadly representative of conditions in the past 10 years, and (4) of sufficient spatial resolution that they could be used to make valid comparisons among local catchment units. Variables summarized at the HUC12 scale include measures of anthropogenic land uses, population density, roads, dams,...

Categories: Data; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, ArcGIS Service Definition, Downloadable, Map Service; Tags: 2015 National Assessment, 2015 National Assessment, Alaska, Anthropogenic factors, DataProduct, All tags... Habitat Characterization, Lotic, NFHP, NFHP Cooperator, Spatial Data, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), Visual, Watershed Boundary Dataset, drainage basins, environmental assessment, environmental condition, human impacts, inlandWaters, river basin, river reaches, streams, water quality, watershed, Fewer tags

National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP) 2015 Anthropogenic Disturbance Data for the Conterminous United States linked to the NHDPLUSV1

This CSV file contains landscape factors representing anthropogenic disturbances to stream habitats summarized within local and network stream catchments as well as 90 m local and network buffer of stream reaches throughout the conterminous U.S. The source datasets compiled and attributed to spatial units were identified as being: (1) meaningful for assessing fluvial fish habitat; (2) consistent across the entire study area in the way that they were assembled; (3) broadly representative of conditions in the past 10 years, and (4) of sufficient spatial resolution that they could be used to make valid comparisons among local catchment units. Variables summarized at the catchment scale include measures of anthropogenic...

Categories: Data; Types: Citation; Tags: Alabama, Anthropogenic factors, Arizona, Arkansas, California, All tags... Colorado, Connecticut, DataProduct, Delaware, District of Columbia, Environmental condition, Florida, Georgia, Habitat Characterization, Habitat suitability, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Lotic, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, NFHP Cooperator, NHDPlusV1, National Assessment, National Assessment, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, NoVisual, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Spatial Data, Tennessee, Texas, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, drainage basins, environmental assessment, river basin, river reaches, streams, water quality, Fewer tags

Detailed Methodology for Inland Stream Assessment for Alaska (Step 5)

Creating cumulative habitat condition scores Greater Alaska All six sub-indices of disturbance scores in each HUC-12 were summed together to yield a cumulative habitat condition index (CHCI) score for each HUC-12. The maximum value for the CHCI was 6, indicating that a HUC-12 was in the worst condition class for each sub-index of disturbance, while the minimum value of the CHCI was 0, indicating that a HUC-12 was in the best condition class for each sub-index of disturbance. We followed methods applied for the conterminous US and created condition classes using Jenk’s natural breaks. With the exception of the HUC-12s that received a CHCI score of <0.001, which were given a priory assignment of “very low” risk of...

Tags: 2015, Alaska, Method

National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP) 90 Meter Buffers of the NHDPlusV1 for the Conterminous United States

This geodatabase contains 90 meter buffers of streams within the National Hydrography Dataset Plus Version 1 (NHDPlusV1). These buffers were developed by converting NHDPlusV1 flowlines to a 30m grid, then running a euclidean allocation function in ArcPy to generate buffer zones. For flowlines representing artificial paths within NHD area river polygons, buffers extend from the outside edges ("banks") of the polygon outward. The source code for buffer development can be found at https://github.com/ArthurCooper/NFHP-Buffer-Code.

Types: Citation; Tags: 2015 National Assessment, 2015 National Assessment, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, All tags... California, Colorado, Connecticut, DataProduct, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Habitat Characterization, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, NFHP Cooperator, NHDPlusV1, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, NoVisual, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Spatial Data, Stream buffers, Tennessee, Texas, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, drainage basins, river reaches, streams, Fewer tags

Detailed Methodology for Inland Stream Assessment for Alaska (Step 1)

Assembling data Many different human landscape factors were assembled and used to characterize condition of Alaska stream fish habitat (Table 3). Factors include: urban and agricultural land uses; density of point sources of pollution in catchments; measures of stream network fragmentation, including densities of dams and culverts; density of infrastructure (road length, pipelines, etc.) and locations of mines. The availability of some landscape factors varied between southeast Alaska and greater Alaska (see Table 3). Some important threats to fish and fish habitats could not be incorporated into the assessment due to data availability limitations (one example includes forest harvest information across the entire...

Tags: 2015, Alaska, Method

National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP) 2010 Community Fish Data

This geodatabase contains a comparable set of community fish samples from 12 sources, spanning the conterminous United States. The data were compiled through efforts of Michigan State University for the 2010 National Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP) and with support from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Aquatic GAP Program. All fish sample locations were verified and linked to flowlines of the National Hydrography Dataset Plus Version 1 (NHDPlusV1) using the COMID identifier. Fish records were provided by the following organizations and agencies: USGS, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Iowa Department of Natural...

Categories: Data; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, ArcGIS Service Definition, Downloadable, Map Service; Tags: 2010 National Assessment, 2010 National Assessment, Abundance (organisms), Alabama, Arizona, All tags... Arkansas, Biological Data, Biological sampling, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Conterminous United States, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Freshwater fishes, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Inland water environments, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Lotic, Louisiana, Lower 48 states, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, NFHP Cooperator, NHDPlusV1, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rivers, South Carolina, South Dakota, Spatial Data, Spatial distribution, Species composition, Streams, Tennessee, Texas, USA, Utah, Virginia, Visual, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Fewer tags

Fish Habitat Condition and Disturbance Summaries

​Summary This analysis package summarize and visualize the National Fish Habitat Partnership's (NFHP) National Inland Assessment of Fish Habitats (2015) to ecological and jurisdictional boundaries that may be relevant to conservation decisions (e.g. National Park Boundaries, Hydrological Units, States). Often biologists, park managers and other decision makers are confronted with the need to prioritize funding for conservation and restoration efforts with limited resources and information to make decisions. These summaries of NFHP data are intended to give decisionmakers an additional set of information helping to better understand implications of fish habitat condition within their jurisdiction and the adjacent...

National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP) 2015 Cumulative Habitat Condition Scores and Disturbance Indices for Hawaii Linked to Catchments of the Hawai'i Fish Habitat Partnership Stream Layer

This shapefile contains cumulative fish habitat condition index (HCI) scores and specific disturbance indices for local and network stream catchments as well as the downstream main channel catchment of perennial and intermittent streams reaches of the five main island of Hawai'i. In this dataset indices are linked to the Hawaii Fish Habitat Partnership (HFHP) stream layer (Tingley et al. in prep) which is a modified version of the 1:24,000 National Hydrography Dataset. It includes 11,436 intermittent and perennial stream reaches across the five main Hawaiian Islands (Hawai’i, Maui, Moloka’i, O’ahu, Kaua’i). Catchment attributes are available for both local catchments (defined as the land area draining directly to...

Categories: Data; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, Citation, Map Service; Tags: 2015 National Assessment, 2015 National Assessment, Anthropogenic factors, DataProduct, Direct habitat alteration, All tags... Environmental condition, Habitat Characterization, Habitat suitability, Lotic, NFHP Cooperator, NHDHR, National Assessment, Spatial Data, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), Visual, drainage basins, environmental assessment, river basin, river reaches, streams, water quality, Fewer tags

National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP) 2015 Anthropogenic Disturbance Data for Southeast Alaska With Link to the Modified NHD with Catchments v1.1

This CSV file contains landscape factors representing anthropogenic disturbances to stream habitats summarized within local and network stream catchments of Southeast Alaska. The source datasets compiled and attributed to spatial units were identified as being: (1) meaningful for assessing fluvial fish habitat; (2) consistent across the entire study area in the way that they were assembled; (3) broadly representative of conditions in the past 10 years, and (4) of sufficient spatial resolution that they could be used to make valid comparisons among local catchment units. Variables summarized at the catchment scale include measures of anthropogenic land uses, population density, roads, dams, mines, culverts, 303d...

Categories: Data, Data Release - Revised; Tags: 2015 National Assessment, 2015 National Assessment, Alaska, Anthropogenic factors, DataProduct, All tags... Environmental condition, Habitat Characterization, Lotic, NFHP Cooperator, NHDHR, NoVisual, Regional Assessment, Spatial Data, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), drainage basins, environmental assessment, human impacts, inlandWaters, river reaches, streams, water quality, Fewer tags

National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP) 2015 Human Disturbance Data for Hawaii

This CSV file contains landscape factors representing anthropogenic disturbances to stream habitats summarized within local and network stream catchments as well as the downstream main channel catchment perennial and intermittent stream reaches of the five main islands of Hawai'i. The source datasets compiled and attributed to spatial units were identified as being: (1) meaningful for assessing fluvial fish habitat; (2) consistent across the entire study area in the way that they were assembled; (3) broadly representative of conditions in the past 10 years, and (4) of sufficient spatial resolution that they could be used to make valid comparisons among local catchment units. Variables summarized at the catchment...

Categories: Data; Tags: 2015 National Assessment, 2015 National Assessment, Anthropogenic factors, DataProduct, Environmental condition, All tags... Habitat Characterization, Habitat suitability, Lotic, NFHP Cooperator, NHDHR, NoVisual, Spatial Data, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), drainage basins, environmental assessment, river basin, river reaches, streams, water quality, Fewer tags