1 National Hydrography Dataset Application Symposium Andrew T. Battin Senior Information Resource Management Official U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water December 11-14, 2000 The University of Texas at Austin

2 Geo-Referencing History & Purpose A Brief History of the Office of Water –Traditional permitted outfall / intake approach –Watershed emphasis Recent Agency Emphases –Multi-media program implementation and oversight –Place-based initiatives –Information integration Why Do We Need Geo-Referencing?

3 OW Needs to Portray and Analyze Data Geographically... - Monitoring site - Point source discharge - Drinking water supply - … Polygons Points Lines - Drainage network - 303(d) listed waters - Designated use waters - 305(b) waterbodies - Watersheds - Source Water Protection Areas -...

4 To Best Support Its Mission Needs Easy Access from the Desktop and Through the Internet Enabling Simple Queries to Complex Analyses of OW & Other Data Resources to Support: –Public Right-To-Know –TMDLs –Water Quality Standards –Source Water Protection Areas –Water Treatment Construction Needs –Permits –Clean Water Action Plan –Unified Watershed Assessments –GPRA –Consolidated Reporting –Drinking Water Intakes –... Land Use Demography Habitat States/Counties Surface Waters...

5 How Does NHD Support Water Programs? Geo-Referencing of Water Program Information EPA & Public Use of Geo-Referenced Water Information to Support Program Implementation and Oversight Systems Integration using the Geo- Referencing Framework

6 Water Program Priorities for Geo-Referencing Water Quality Standards Total Maximum Daily Loads Combined Sewer Overflows Sanitary Sewer Outfalls Tribal Boundaries & Facilities Drinking Water Intakes Source Water Protection Areas Sediments Nutrients Stormwater Drains Beaches Fish Advisories STORET Monitoring

7 Enable simple queries –Locate all permitted facilities on a river section Modeling and other complex analyses –Calculate TMDL for a river section Static & Dynamic Maps and Database Access Land Use Demography Habitat States/Counties Surface Waters... EPA & Public Use of Geo-Referenced Water Information

8 Integrated Systems using the Framework Reach Address Database NHD Reach Indexing Tool Internet NHD WQS Database STORET (modernized) National Assessment Database TMDL Tracking System GRTS Reach ID 303(d) Events TMDL Events 305(b) Events TMDL ID WB Seg ID Reach ID WQS Events Reach ID WQS ID 303(d) List ID STORET Events Reach ID Agency/ Station ID Agency/ Station ID GRTS Events Reach ID WBSeg ID + Cause Reach ID

9 The NHD Framework and Other EPA Initiatives Reinventing Environmental Information (REI) Data Standards Locational Data Improvement Project (LDIP) EPA’s Information Integration Initiative (I3)

10 Reinventing Environmental Information Data Standards Facility Identification Data Standard Latitude/Longitude Data Standard –Point location/documentation Geo-Locational Data Standard –Under “development” –To support linear and polygon features NEW !

11 Locational Data Improvement Project (LDIP) Gather existing latitude/longitude point coordinates (with metadata) Encourage High Quality, Well-Documented Future Collections High Quality Coordinates critical for Geo- Referencing Activities

12 EPA’s Information Integration Initiative (I3) Demonstrating Integration through Geography – “Window to my Environment” Geo-referencing framework supports place-based integration of information IV.

13 Summary Geo-Referencing of Water Program information Query / Modeling Capabilities Databases Access and Maps can be Dynamic Systems Integration using the Geo-Referencing Framework Data Standards are in place and new standards are under development Geo-Referencing supports the Agency goal of placed-based integration of information

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