National Riparian Areas Base Map

Riparian areas are an important natural resource with high biological diversity. These ecosystems contain specific vegetation and soil characteristics which support irreplaceable values and multiple ecosystem functions and are very responsive to changes in land management activities. Delineating and quantifying riparian areas is an essential step in riparian monitoring, planning, management, and policy decisions. USDA Forest Service supports the development and implementation of a national context framework with a multi-scale approach to define riparian areas utilizing free available national geospatial datasets. 

• “the plan must include plan components, including standards or guidelines, to maintain or restore the ecological integrity of riparian areas in the plan area, including plan components to maintain or restore structure, function, composition, and connectivity” FH 1909.12-Land Management Planning Handbook, Chapter 20-Land Management Plan. 
• In 2015, the Forest Service Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air, & Rare Plants and staff and Rangeland Management & Vegetation Ecology (RMVE) staff funded the development and implementation of the Riparian Buffer Delineation Model (RBDM) to obtain a national inventory of riparian areas.
• This product would inform the Agency on national riparian resource conditions with multi-scale approach, and support other landscape tools such as the Terrestrial Condition Assessment (TCA) and the Watershed Condition Classification (WCC).

• Provide a framework and an end product to stakeholders and apply the information into management actions and strategies.
• Multi-scale approach to provide a national and regional report map. Create a product for managers to easily understand where to apply the information at various scales.
• Develop a national context inventory of riparian areas and their condition within national forests and rangelands.

1. Spatial extent.
2. Location.
3. Size.
4. General land cover composition.

• Using freely available data.
• Develop cost effective modeling approach & technique.
• Multi-scale (national, regional, & local).
• Promote technology transfer to train/reach out to our partners.

• The 50-year floodplain is the optimal hydrologic descriptor of riparian ecotones a long a moving watercourse as determined by Ilhardt et al. (2000).
• In most cases the 50-year flood height intersects the first terrace or other upward sloping surface and supports the same microclimate and geomorphology as the stream channel.

Calculate 50 year flood height per each stream order within each HUC-2 watershed.

Forest to Faucet utilizes NRAB to assess sub-watersheds importance for surface drinking water.

• Various land management plans and projects. US Forest Service.
• Land easement based on riparian areas percentage per each watershed. North Carolina.
• Identify areas of conservation, Thurston County, Washington.
• Map riparian zones at Dodder river and populate delineation with habitat classification. Belfast, Ireland.
• Terrain processing for stream bank determination.
• Riparian areas monitoring. Aberdare region, Kenya.
• Academic purposes for PhD and masters research.
• High resolution riparian areas land cover. New Mexico Natural Heritage & University of New Mexico.

• 88% overall mapping accuracy achieved using 10-meter DEM, NWI, gSSURGO data, and calculated flood heights from three available water gauges as inputs for RBDM.
• there inherited errors from utilizing free available data; RED BOX riparian algorithm failed to delineate riparian areas due to missing stream. YELLOW BOX failed due to riparian soil query used in highlighting riparian soil. BLACK BOX error in wetlands delineation compared to field data.
• Other inherited errors observed due to positional inaccuracies associated with NHDPlus streams 40-150 feet reported.

• Streams classification. river vs. man made channels.
• Hydrologic data. 50-year vs. 100-year. accurate measurements.
• Streams positional inaccuracies.
• DEM spatial resolution.

I would like to express my special thanks and gratitude to the project co-authors and all people listed below for their help and support throughout this important project.

• Linda Spencer, U.S. Forest Service - RMVE
• Michael Wieczorek, U.S. Geological Survey - DE MD DC WSC.
• Nathaniel Gillespie, U.S. Forest Service - WFWARP.
• Alix Cleveland, U.S. Forest Service - RMVE.
• Christopher Carlson, U.S. Forest Service - WFWARP.
• Sally Claggett, U.S. Forest Service - S&P
• Andrew LaMotte, U.S. Geological Survey - DE MD DC WSC.
• Lorri Peltz-Lewis, U.S. Forest Service - PSW Research Station.
• David Rugg, U.S. Forest Service - Research & Development