Watershed Boundaries for the Southern Appalachian Assessment (SAA) Region

Browse Graphic

Frequently-anticipated questions:

What does this data set describe?
    Title:
    Watershed Boundaries for Southern Appalachian Assessment (SAA) Region
    Abstract:
    Boundaries of all eight-digit hydrologic cataloging units of which a portion is in the SAA area. Includes hydrologic unit codes (HUCs) and hydrologic unit names.
    Supplemental_Information:
    The leading zero on HUCs is suppressed. The "two-digit" HUCs in the SAA region range from 2 to 6. Hence they are represented by 1 digit only in the attribute data. HUC4s for the SAA region have 3 digits, and HUC6s have 5 digits.

  1. How should this data set be cited?

    Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere Program, 1996, Watershed Boundaries for Southern Appalachian Assessment (SAA) Region: Southern Appalachain Man and the Biosphere Program, Norris, TN.

    Online Links:

    This is part of the following larger work.

    Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere (SAMAB) Cooperative, 199606, The Southern Appalachian Assessment: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Region, Atlanta, GA.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details:
    Five volumes Report 1: Summary Report 2: Aquatic technical report Report 3: Atmospheric technical report Report 4: Social/Cultural/Economic techical report Report 5: Terrestrial technical report

  2. What geographic area does the data set cover?

    West_Bounding_Coordinate: -86.769724
    East_Bounding_Coordinate: -76.602731
    North_Bounding_Coordinate: 40.195528
    South_Bounding_Coordinate: 32.446009

  3. What does it look like?

  4. Does the data set describe conditions during a particular time period?

    Calendar_Date: Unknown
    Currentness_Reference: Publication date

  5. What is the general form of this data set?

    Geospatial_Data_Presentation_Form: vector digital data

  6. How does the data set represent geographic features?

    1. How are geographic features stored in the data set?

      This is a Vector data set. It contains the following vector data types (SDTS terminology):

      • Complete chain (8623)
      • Entity point (73)
      • GT-polygon composed of rings (73)
      • Point (4)

    2. What coordinate system is used to represent geographic features?

      The map projection used is Albers Conical Equal Area.

      Projection parameters:
      Standard_Parallel: 34
      Standard_Parallel: 38
      Longitude_of_Central_Meridian: -82
      Latitude_of_Projection_Origin: 33
      False_Easting: 0
      False_Northing: 0

      Planar coordinates are encoded using Coordinate Pair
      Abscissae (x-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 0.002048
      Ordinates (y-coordinates) are specified to the nearest 0.002048
      Planar coordinates are specified in meters

      The horizontal datum used is North American Datum of 1983.
      The ellipsoid used is Geodetic Reference System 80.
      The semi-major axis of the ellipsoid used is 6378206.
      The flattening of the ellipsoid used is 1/294.9786982.

  7. How does the data set describe geographic features?

    WATERSHD.PAT
    Watershed polygon attribute table (Source: U.S. Geological Survey, ARC/INFO-generated attribute items, and information from Dennis H. Yankee)

    ACC
    Hydrologic Unit Code for accounting unit (NRCS - "Basin"). Same as HUC6. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:20700
    Maximum:60300

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:Codes for the Identification of Hydrologic Units
    Codeset Source:U.S. Geological Survey

    AREA
    Area in square meters of each hydrologic unit (Source: Computed)

    Range of values
    Minimum:909691500
    Maximum:8155845000
    Units:square meters

    CAT
    Hydrologic Unit Code for cataloging unit (NRCS - "Subbasin"). Same as HUC. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:2070001
    Maximum:6030003

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:Codes for the Identification of Hydrologic Units
    Codeset Source:U.S. Geological Survey

    FID
    Unique Feature Identification number. Seems to be the same as the WATERSHD#. (Source: ARC/INFO-generated)

    Range of values
    Minimum:2
    Maximum:74

    HUC
    Eight-digit Hydrologic Unit Code (leading zero is suppressed) (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:2070001
    Maximum:6030003

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:Codes for the Identification of Hydrologic Units
    Codeset Source:U.S. Geological Survey

    HUC2
    Two-digit Hydrologic Unit Code for Water Resource Region (leading zero is suppressed). Same as REG. Also the same as the first digit of HUC. (It's really the second digit, but for the SAA the first one would be zero and is not shown.) (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:2
    Maximum:6

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:Codes for the Identification of Hydrologic Units
    Codeset Source:U.S. Geological Survey

    HUC4
    Four-digit Hydrologic Unit Code for Water Resource Subregion code (leading zero is suppressed). Same as SUB. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:207
    Maximum:603

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:Codes for the Identification of Hydrologic Units
    Codeset Source:U.S. Geological Survey

    HUC6
    Six-digit Hydrologic Unit Code for accounting unit (NRCS - "Basin") (leading zero is suppressed). Same as ACC (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:20700
    Maximum:60300

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:Codes for the Identification of Hydrologic Units
    Codeset Source:U.S. Geological Survey

    PERIMETER
    Length of the boundary delineating each hydrologic unit (Source: Computed)

    Range of values
    Minimum:184600.4
    Maximum:891675.8
    Units:meters

    PLYTYPE
    A code indicating the classification of offshore polygons. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    ValueDefinition
    0U.S. land, including islands.

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:0
    Codeset Source:Unknown. PLYTYPE of all entities in this data set is 0.

    REG
    Hydrologic Unit Code for Water Resource Region. Same as HUC2. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:2
    Maximum:6

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:Codes for the Identification of Hydrologic Units
    Codeset Source:U.S. Geological Survey

    SAA
    Entity inside the SAA region? (Source: saa1/saa_100k/boundary. (Note that this 1:100,000 boundary differs slightly from the version at saa1/saa_2mil/boundary, which was used to determine the in/out SAA atribute for the larger scale coverages))

    ValueDefinition
    0Entity is entirely outside of the SAA region.
    1At least some part of the entity is inside the SAA region.

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:SAA
    Codeset Source:Unknown

    SHAPE
    Geometric representation of the feature (Source: ArcInfo-generated)

    ValueDefinition
    Polygon2-dimensional element

    SUB
    Hydrologic Unit Code for Water Resource Subregion. Same as HUC4. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:207
    Maximum:603

    Formal codeset
    Codeset Name:Codes for the Identification of Hydrologic Units
    Codeset Source:U.S. Geological Survey

    WATERSHD#
    Internal polygon identification number (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:2
    Maximum:74

    WATERSHD-ID
    User-assigned watershed identification number (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:1526
    Maximum:2921

    WATERSHD.AAT
    Watershed boundary lines between hydrologic units (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    $FROMNODE
    Internal number of the from-node. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:1
    Maximum:8549

    $LEFTPOLYGON
    Internal number of the polygon to the left of the arc. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:1
    Maximum:74

    $RIGHTPOLYGON
    Internal number of the polygon to the right of the arc. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:1
    Maximum:74

    $TONODE
    Internal number of the to-node. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:2
    Maximum:8551

    Shape
    The representation of the entity in the data. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    ValueDefinition
    PolylineOne-dimensional element that surrounds a two-dimensional element.

    WATERSHD.TIC
    Watershed Boundary Coverage Control Tics. Attributes for this entity are the same as for WATERSHD.PAT, except that the Shape of these entities is 'point.' In addition to these attribute the tics have four attibutes whose name starts with the $ character. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    $ANGLE
    Unknown (Source: U.S. Geological Survey?)

    ValueDefinition
    0Unknown

    $ID
    Internal number of the tic. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:1526
    Maximum:2921

    $POLYGONID
    Internal number of the polygon associated with this tic. (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Range of values
    Minimum:2
    Maximum:74

    $SCALE
    Unknown (Source: U.S. Geological Survey?)

    ValueDefinition
    1Unknow

    Shape
    Geometric representation of the feature (Source: ArcInfo)

    ValueDefinition
    pointZero-dimensional element

    HUCS100K.BND
    Watershed Boundary Coverage Bounding Coordinates (Source: U.S. Geological Survey)

    Entity_and_Attribute_Overview:
    Each polygon represents an eight-digit hydrologic unit. With the Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) it is easy to tell how the watersheds are heirarchically nested. Each group of two digits in the eight-digit code identifies a unit in the hierarchical tree.
    Entity_and_Attribute_Detail_Citation:
    Codes for the Identification of Hydrologic Units in the United States and the Caribbean outlying areas. U.S. Geological Survey, 1982. (see crossreferences in the Identification section of the present metadata document for more details)

Who produced the data set?

  1. Who are the originators of the data set? (may include formal authors, digital compilers, and editors)

  2. Who also contributed to the data set?

    Tennessee Valley Authority, Dennis H. Yankee

  3. To whom should users address questions about the data?

    Wolf Naegeli, Ph.D.
    Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere Program (SAMAB)
    Senior Research Scientist
    314 Conference Center Building, 600 Henley Street
    Knoxville, TN 37996-4138
    U.S.A.

    +1-865-584-4806 (voice)
    +1-413-383-4946 (eFax) (FAX)
    wnn@utk.edu

    Hours_of_Service: 9-6 EST

Why was the data set created?
Created from 1:2,500,000 source maps to better fit the 1:100,000 scale RF3 stream files for more asthetic display of maps based on RF3 data.

How was the data set created?
  1. From what previous works were the data drawn?

    watershd (source 1 of 1)
    U.S. Geological Survey, 1985, Digitized Hydrologic Units for the United States at a scale of 1:2,500,000.: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA?.

    Type_of_Source_Media: UNKNOWN
    Source_Scale_Denominator: 2500000
    Source_Contribution: Hydrologic unit boundaries and codes

  2. How were the data generated, processed, and modified?

    Date: Unknown (process 1 of 5)
    Hydrologic units were compiled and published on a 2-piece 1:2,500,000 scale map of the United States.

    Date: Unknown (process 2 of 5)
    The 2-piece hydrologic unit map was digitized in 76 page-size sections which were photocopied from the original map. Each digitized section was checked for coding and topological errors, which were corrected. The sections were merged into one file.

    Date: Unknown (process 3 of 5)
    Using ArcInfo software (GRID) the stream arcs from the EPA RF3 coverage were gridded based on what hydrologic unit code was stored in the attribute file (.aat). These grid cells were then 'grown' out until all cells were assigned a hydrologic unit code. These cells were then transformed into polygons using the GRIDPOLY command in ArcInfo. These polygons were then compared to the original 1:2,000,000 scale HUCs and areas where significant differences occured were updated to better 'fit' the stream data.

    Date: 1995 (process 4 of 5)
    ArcInfo coverage acquired from USGS by EPA. SAA acquired data from EPA and converted to SAA Albers (see Encoding Information in the Spatial Reference section).

    Person who carried out this activity:

    Dennis Hunter Yankee
    Tennessee Valley Authority
    Geographer
    129 Pine Road
    Norris, TN 37828
    U.S.A.

    +1-865-632-1541 (voice)
    +1-865-632-1493 (FAX)
    dhyankee@tva.gov

    Hours_of_Service: 9-5 EST
    (process 5 of 5)
    Metadata imported.

    Data sources used in this process:

    • C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\xml23.tmp

  3. What similar or related data should the user be aware of?

    U.S. Geological Survey, 1985, Digitized Hydrologic Units for the United States at a scale of 1:2,500,000.: U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA?.

    U.S. Geological Survey, 1980, Hydrologic Unit Map of the United States: U.S. Geologic Survey, Reston, VA?.

    Other_Citation_Details: 2 sheets
    Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere (SAMAB) Cooperative, 199606, The Southern Appalachian Assessment: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Region, Atlanta, GA.

    Online Links:

    Other_Citation_Details:
    Five volumes Report 1: Summary Report 2: Aquatic technical report Report 3: Atmospheric technical report Report 4: Social/Cultural/Economic techical report Report 5: Terrestrial technical report
    U.S. Geological Survey, 1982, Codes for the Identification of Hydrologic Units in the United States and the Caribbean outlying areas: U.S. Geologic Survey, Reston, VA?.

    USDA Natural Resources Conserva, National Cartography Geospatial Center, 199506, Mapping and Digitizing Watershed and Subwatershed Hydrologic Unit Boundaries: National Instruction No. 170-304, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, Fort Worth, TX.

    Online Links:

How reliable are the data; what problems remain in the data set?
  1. How well have the observations been checked?

    None

  2. How accurate are the geographic locations?

    None

  3. How accurate are the heights or depths?

    None

  4. Where are the gaps in the data? What is missing?

    None

  5. How consistent are the relationships among the observations, including topology?

    None

How can someone get a copy of the data set?
Are there legal restrictions on access or use of the data?

Access_Constraints:
None in principle, but during times of heavy demand that threatens to exceed system resources, the host computer may limit the number of visitors granted access. SAMAB reserves the right to provide preferential access to users from its member agencies during such periods.
Use_Constraints:
This coverage is at the 1:100,000 scale only in that it 'fits' the SAA stream data. These boundaries are not intended to be used as a 1:100,000 scale watershed map for anything other than general presentation purposes.

  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 1 of 2)

    Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere Program (SAMAB)
    314 Conference Center Building, 600 Henley Street
    Knoxville, TN 37996-4138
    U.S.A.

    +1-865-974-4583 (voice)
    +1-865-974-4609 (FAX)
    samab@utk.edu

    Hours_of_Service: 9-5 EST
  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set?

    Watershed pseudo 100k

  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?

    The Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere Program (SAMAB) makes these data publicly available on an "as-is" basis.

    Although SAMAB and its associates strive to assure that their digital datasets are accurate, useful, and current at the time of their compilation, SAMAB makes not warranties--expressed or implied--as to the accuracy, completeness, or usability of these data or any accompanying metadata and other support files. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by SAMAB in the use of this data, software, or related materials.

    Neither SAMAB nor any of its members, partners, sponsors, contractors, or data providers shall be responsible for any claims attributable to errors, omissions, or other inaccuracies. In no event shall they be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential loss or damage of any nature caused to any person, party, or entity resulting from any use of these data.

    The recipients of a dataset shall bear full responsibility to determine the fitness of the data for each and every intended use. Some known usability issues are mentioned under "Use Constraints" in the Identification section of the present metadata document. Careful attention should also be paid to the contents of the metadata files that may be associated with individual datasets.

    These disclaimers apply to use of SAMAB data alone as well as to aggregate use with data from other sources.

    SAMAB makes these data available to the public free of charge. SAMAB does not countenance secondary distribution of these data. Recipients may not assert any proprietary rights to any of these data, nor represent them to anyone as other than free SAMAB data.

    Any mention of trade, service, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and shall not constitute an endorsement or imply a recommendation by SAMAB or its affiliates.

  4. How can I download or order the data?

  5. Is there some other way to get the data?

    The CD-ROM disc set is no longer available, but you may find it at a library or in a GIS lab.

    Library of Congress Control Number: 00530085. Call number not yet assigned. Status: In Process--as of 08/03/00. University of Tennessee Library call number: E 1.111:SO 8/2-5/CD

    All datasets contained on these CD-ROM discs may now be downloaded from the SAMAB website at <http://samab.org/>.

  1. Who distributes the data set? (Distributor 2 of 2)

    Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere Program (SAMAB)
    314 Conference Center Building, 600 Henley Street
    Knoxville, TN 37996-4138
    U.S.A.

    +1-865-974-4583 (voice)
    +1-865-974-4609 (FAX)
    samab@utk.edu

    Hours_of_Service: 9-5 EST
  2. What's the catalog number I need to order this data set?

    Watershed pseudo 100k

  3. What legal disclaimers am I supposed to read?

    The Southern Appalachian Man and the Biosphere Program (SAMAB) makes these data publicly available on an "as-is" basis.

    Although SAMAB and its associates strive to assure that their digital datasets are accurate, useful, and current at the time of their compilation, SAMAB makes not warranties--expressed or implied--as to the accuracy, completeness, or usability of these data or any accompanying metadata and other support files. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by SAMAB in the use of this data, software, or related materials.

    Neither SAMAB nor any of its members, partners, sponsors, contractors, or data providers shall be responsible for any claims attributable to errors, omissions, or other inaccuracies. In no event shall they be liable for direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential loss or damage of any nature caused to any person, party, or entity resulting from any use of these data.

    The recipients of a dataset shall bear full responsibility to determine the fitness of the data for each and every intended use. Some known usability issues are mentioned under "Use Constraints" in the Identification section of the present metadata document. Careful attention should also be paid to the contents of the metadata files that may be associated with individual datasets.

    These disclaimers apply to use of SAMAB data alone as well as to aggregate use with data from other sources.

    SAMAB makes these data available to the public free of charge. SAMAB does not countenance secondary distribution of these data. Recipients may not assert any proprietary rights to any of these data, nor represent them to anyone as other than free SAMAB data.

    Any mention of trade, service, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and shall not constitute an endorsement or imply a recommendation by SAMAB or its affiliates.

  4. How can I download or order the data?

Who wrote the metadata?
Dates:
Last modified: 21-Mar-1996
Last Reviewed: 12-Aug-2000

Metadata author:
Dennis Hunter Yankee
Tennessee Valley Authority
Geographer
129 Pine Road
Norris, TN 37828
U.S.A.

+1-865-632-1541 (voice)
+1-865-632-1493 (FAX)
dhyankee@tva.gov

Hours_of_Service: 9-5 EST
Metadata standard:
FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata (FGDC-STD-001-1998)

Generated by mp version 2.7.33 on Sat Apr 17 18:37:52 2004