NATURAL HERITAGE PROGRAM DATA The Natural Heritage Program is the state's most comprehensive source of information on rare and endangered animals and plants, and exemplary natural communities, known collectively as "elements of natural diversity." Since 1976, the program has systematically gathered information on the occurrence and status of the state's ecological resources. The inventory consists of information compiled from a broad range of sources including herbarium and museum collections, published and unpublished literature, and field surveys by volunteers, contracted workers, and staff. Information from and interpretation of this database for specific sites is available from the Natural Heritage Program. This is generally the preferred method of getting information on elements of natural diversity. The geographic content of the Natural Heritage Program element occurrence database has also been incorporated into the state Center for Geographic Information & Analysis (CGIA) ARC/INFO database where it can be combined with other geographic data for planning and analysis. Users of the data must, however, be aware of the nature and limitations of the data.
LIMITATIONS OF POLYGON DATA The polygon locations contained in the CGIA database represent the approximate boundaries of ecologically significant natural areas. The natural areas database contains data from a variety of sources, which vary in the quality of their locational information. Because of uncertainty about the precision and accuracy of source data, polygons anywhere within several miles of a site of interest should be regarded as indicating the need for more information. Probability of effects by a project depends on the actual location and extent of the natural area, on the nature of the species or community it contains, and on the nature of the action being considered. Interpretation of potential effects should be done only by ecologists familiar with the natural area, with the best locational information available.
LIMITATIONS OF ABSENCE OF DATA Although the Natural Heritage Program has conducted numerous biological inventories and has assembled as much of the secondary source data as possible, the large majority of the state has never been systematically surveyed for significant natural areas. In addition, negative surveys are seldom reported to the Natural Heritage Program and are not recorded. The database reflects only locations where a significant natural area was once known to occur. It does not distinguish between areas known to have no elements and those that have not been checked. The absence of natural areas cannot be taken as an indication of absence of elements or of ecological concerns. Natural Heritage Program biologists are often able to give indications of the potential for concern in unsurveyed areas, and the CGIA map database is not a substitute for this kind of interpretation.
DATA CURRENCY The Natural Heritage Program databases are continually updated as new information is acquired. The locational database at CGIA is updated as needed for applications. Users should determine from CGIA the date of the last update and, if necessary, see that an update is done prior to their application being run. All printed maps from the GIS should be dated. Depending on activity in a given area, a map may quickly become outdated, or may remain current for several years. It is not possible to set a specific expiration date on maps; however, data more than six months old should not be depended on without checking with the Natural Heritage Program. Only a small portion of the natural areas are monitored on a regular basis. Information in the Natural Heritage Program database represents the occurrence at the last time it was observed. The date of last observation is given in the Natural Heritage Program database but is not included in the CGIA database.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Additional information about significant natural heritage areas, and user services are available from the Natural Heritage Program. The basic data are "public records" and are available for inspection on request for reasonable purposes.
system filename: snha file size = 3.21 MB
Revisions and updates to this layer include:
10.) filename: snha700 - Coverage update July 20, 2000. 1,838 polygons.
9.) filename: snha300 - Coverage updated March 6, 2000. 1,881 polygons.
8.) filename: snha1199 - November 1, 1999 update. 1,994 polygons.
7.) filename: snha599 - May 21, 1999 update. Data set contains 1,992
polygons.
6.) filename: snha299 The Feb. 26, 1999 file contains 2,012 polygons.
5.) filename: snha898 - August 3, 1998 update.
The August 1998 update to this layer consisted of
projecting the data from NAD27 datum, State Plane
projection, units of measure feet TO: NAD83 DATUM,
State Plane PROJECTION, UNITS OF MEASURE METERS.
This was done to comply with the NC Geographic
Information Coordinating Council's "Statement of
Direction for North Carolina Corporate Geographic
Database Horizontal Reference, Datum and Unit of
Measure". This reprojecting was done in
various ways depending on the data type and content.
Vector data was projected using the 'project' command
in ESRI's Arc software and topology was cleaned and
built based on coverage needs. Raster data was
projected using ESRI's Grid module and various steps
as applicable.
4.) filename: snha298 - February 26, 1998 update. Item PRIORITY changed
to SIG in .pat. Item ACRES added to .pat. Item MACROCD changed to
MCSITECODE. Arc attribute table (.aat) was dropped.
This layer was previously named Natural Areas, nanhp.
3.) filename: nanhp1096 - October 21, 1996 update. Areas may have
been added, deleted or attributes corrected.
2.) filename: nanhp596 - May 20, 1996 release of Natural Areas for
statewide North Carolina. This incorporated the previous data,
edits, edition and expansion of the coverage area.
1.) filename: ap24.nar793 Natural Areas for the APES region.
The July 1993 file is the original
version of this data and covers only the APES area minus Tyrrell
and Dare counties.
NC DENR-Div. of Parks and Recre, Natural Heritage Program, 20000720, Significant Natural Heritage Areas: NC DENR-Div. of Parks and Recreation, Natural Heritage Program, Raleigh, North Carolina.Online Links:
- CGDB layer listing and Metadata - <http://www.cgia.state.nc.us/cgdb/index.html>
Planar coordinates are encoded using coordinate pair
Abscissae (x-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 1
Ordinates (y-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 1
Planar coordinates are specified in meters
The horizontal datum used is North American Datum of 1983.
The ellipsoid used is Geodetic Reference System 1980.
The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378137.
The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/298.257.
| Range of values | |
|---|---|
| Minimum: | .114 |
| Maximum: | 1119932032.000000 |
| Units: | feet |
| Resolution: | .001 |
| Range of values | |
|---|---|
| Minimum: | 1.670 |
| Maximum: | 295585.562 |
| Units: | Feet |
| Resolution: | 0.001 |
| Range of values | |
|---|---|
| Minimum: | 1 |
| Maximum: | 1838 |
| Range of values | |
|---|---|
| Minimum: | 0 |
| Maximum: | 1837 |
| Value | Definition |
|---|---|
| ' ' | No further boundaries developed. |
| PRIMARY | Polygon serves as primary area containing significant features. |
| SECONDARY | Polygon serves as secondary area or buffer for significant features. |
Numbers vary according to natural area
Site names vary according to natural area
| Value | Definition |
|---|---|
| ' ' | Areas that are not ecologically significant |
| A | Areas that are of national significance |
| B | Areas that are of state significance |
| C | Areas that are of regional significance |
ITEM NAME WIDTH OUTPUT TYPE N.DEC DESCRIPTION
AREA 4 12 F 3 Total area in coverage units
PERIMETER 4 12 F 3 Total perimeter in coverage units
SNHA# 4 5 B - Internal ID number
SNHA-ID 4 5 B - User ID number
TYPE 10 10 C - Boundary type
ACRES 8 12 F 2 Area of site in acres
SITENAME 80 80 C - Natural area site name
SIG 1 1 C - NHP significance designation
Division of Parks and Recreation Director, Philip K. McKnellyNatural Heritage Program, Linda Pearsall
NC Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources
512 N. Salisbury Street
Raleigh, NC 27604-1148
NCCGIA Director, Karen Siderelis
Database Administration, Zsolt Nagy
Database Management, Ken Shaffer
Project Manager, David Giordano
North Carolina Center for Geographic Information & Analysis
Governor's Office
Office of State Planning
301 North Wilmington Street, Suite 700
Raleigh, NC 27601-2825
(919) 715-8697 (voice)
(919) 715-3085 (FAX)
This data was created to assist governmental agencies and others in making resource management decisions through use of a Geographic Information System (GIS).
NC DENR-Div. of Parks and Recre, Natural Heritage Program, 20000720, Significant Natural Heritage Areas: NC DENR-Div. of Parks and Recreation, Natural Heritage Program, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Survey, US Geological , 1990, USGS 7.5 Minute series quadrangles: US Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia.
Person who carried out this activity:
(919) 715-8697 (voice)
(919) 715-3085 (FAX)
Person who carried out this activity:
(919) 733-2090 (voice)
(919) 715-0725 (FAX)
dataq@cgia.state.nc.us
Program, Natural Heritage , 1990, County Natural Area Inventories: NC DENR-Div. of Parks and Recreation, Natural Heritage Program, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Program, Natural Heritage , 19960409, Natural Heritage Element Occurrence Sites: NC DENR-Div. of Parks and Recreation, Natural Heritage Program, Raleigh, North Carolina.Online Links:
- CGDB layer listing and Metadata - <http://www.cgia.state.nc.us/cgdb/index.html>
NC DENR-Div. of Parks and Recreation, Natural Heritage Program provides the Significant Natural Heritage Areas as ARC/INFO export files to NCCGIA. They are imported as ARC/INFO coverages. The data is reviewed by NHP staff.
Natural areas were delineated on 7.5 Minute USGS paper topographic maps which meet National Map Accuracy Standards, using a best estimate with reference to surrounding features.
These data represent areas containing ecologically significant natural communities or rare species as identified by NC DENR- Div. of Parks and Recreation, Natural Heritage Program.
Using ESRI's ARC/INFO GIS software, the data set was built for arc and polygon topology using the "build" command. The data set was then cleaned with a fuzzy tolerance of 1 foot. Topology has not been edited since the last build or clean.
Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?
- Access_Constraints:
- Although present in the Corporate Database, the Significant Natural Heritage Areas data remains under the supervision of the Natural Heritage Program. Permission MUST be given by the Natural Heritage Program for each different use of the data. Although more significant ecological features are lost because of ignorance and accident than because of exploitation or intentional destruction, publication of locations of many natural areas increases the risk of deliberate damage to them. If a particular areas is of interest, the Natural Heritage Program must be contacted to determine the identity of the area and its significance. There may be a charge for Natural Heritage Program services in providing the data, in addition to CGIA fees. A preapproval letter must be sent from CGIA to the source agency before release of this data can occur. Contact Production Services at (919)733-2090.
- Use_Constraints:
- These data are intended for research or planning projects that will contribute to better protection for the ecological features involved. Due to its dynamic nature, this data becomes outdated very quickly. The Natural Heritage Program must be contacted before each use of the data set to ensure data currency. The Natural Heritage Program MUST be contacted in writing prior to distribution or hardcopy output of this data layer. Acknowledgement of products derived from this data set should cite the following: The source of the Significant Natural Heritage Areas data is the North Carolina Corporate Geographic Database. Earlier versions of this data set may exist. The user must be sure to use the appropriate data set for the time period of interest. While efforts have been made to ensure that these data are accurate and reliable within the state of the art, CGIA cannot assume liability for any damages or misrepresentation caused by any inaccuracies in the data or as a result of changes to the data caused by system transfers.
(919) 733-2090 (voice)
(919) 715-0725 (FAX)
dataq@cgia.state.nc.us
Significant Natural Heritage Areas
NCCGIA is charged with the development and maintenance of the State's corporate geographic database and, in cooperation with other mapping organizations, is committed to offering its users accurate, useful, and current information about the state. Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of information, errors and conditions originating from physical sources used to develop the corporate database may be reflected in the data supplied. The client must be aware of data conditions and bear responsibility for the appropriate use of the information with respect to possible errors, original map scale, collection methodology, currency of data, and other conditions specific to certain data. NCCGIA does not support secondary distribution of this data. The use of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the NCCGIA or North Carolina State Government.
FOR DIGITAL OR NON-DIGITAL DATA, Contact NC CGIA, Data Distribution to order data, Phone 919.733.2090 ... Email dataq@cgia.state.nc.us ... Web Page order form <http://www.cgia.state.nc.us/cgdb/index.html>
For current FORMAT/MEDIA INFORMATION, use a web browser: <http://www.cgia.state.nc.us/cost.html> or phone NC CGIA Data Distribution 919.733.2090
Data creation and large data analysis jobs contact Database Administration P:(919)733-2090. All data is available through standard ordering procedures on a cost recovery basis.
All formats supplied are created using ARC/INFO GIS software on Unix workstations. Other formats are available. Format compatibility is the user's responsibility. For more information on formats and media, use a web browser: FORMAT/MEDIA INFORMATION - <http://www.cgia.state.nc.us/cost.html>
(919) 733-2090 (voice)
(919) 715-0725 (FAX)
dataq@cgia.state.nc.us