Assessing wetland impacts across boundaries using WetCAT
Using the online mapping tool in the shared waterways of the Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds
About WetCAT
Looking across boundaries in shared waterways
Spanning 43 counties in North Carolina and 38 counties and cities in Virginia, the watershed of the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuary is almost 31,500 square miles, or about the size of the country of Belgium. Sources: Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership , NC SeaGrant
The second largest estuary in the nation (second in size only to the Chesapeake Bay), the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuary lies downstream of rivers flowing through Virginia including the Chowan, Roanoke, Pasquotank, Tar, Pamlico, Neuse, and White Oak. Land change activities in Virginia can have impacts on North Carolina waterways, though regulatory agencies historically didn't have the ability to coordinate across state boundaries.
Recognizing this, the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Program (APNEP) was formed in 1987 to foster regulatory, conservation, and restoration activities within the shared waterways.
In 2017 and 2021, Memorandums of Agreement (MOU) were signed by the Secretaries of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and the Natural Resources of the Commonwealth of Virginia, along with signatories from key state agencies in both Virginia and North Carolina. The goal of the MOU is to support healthy watershed management across the region, and help to ensure that staff, funding, and existing State programs are able to efficiently carry out joint efforts while reducing overlap and unintended downstream effects.
How is WetCAT helping management in the shared waterways?
As a result of the MOU, the WetCAT tool was expanded to include available data from the shared waterways area of the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuary.
Data layers added for North Carolina include mitigation sites from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers RIBITS database and 401 WQC permits from the NC Department of Environmental Quality.
The key data layer in WetCAT is National Wetland Inventory (NWI) wetlands that have been scored from Slightly Stressed to Severely Stressed using a field-checked approach for two ecosystem services: the ability to provide habitat and to improve water quality.
WetCAT also includes permit data, impaired waters and algal bloom reports, surrounding land use and historic imagery, and many other layers. Importantly, users can deploy geoprocessing tools that will summarize data for areas surrounding individual wetlands or user-chosen points, assess contributing watershed information, evaluate resources downstream, and even print a report. Including information for shared waterways allows managers in both states to evaluate actions across boundaries.
Using WetCAT in North Carolina
Summary
Expanding WetCAT across jurisdictional boundaries allows for better coordination of wetlands activities, assessing impacts of impacts across distance and boundaries, and to guide policy and planning.
To learn more:
To learn more about the estuary and APNEP's work, visit the Albemarle-Pamlico National Estuary Partnership (APNEP) website .
