Data
This documentation describes the RSContext model as implemented for the United States. Similar models exist for other regions, such as New Zealand, France, and Italy. While the overarching concept—retrieving publicly available river-related data—is consistent across jurisdictions, the specific algorithms are tailored to each country to accommodate differences in government data providers.
Topography
Digital Elevation Model
National Elevation Dataset (NED) Digital Elevation Models (DEM). These DEMs are downloaded from Science Base and mosaiced into a single 10 m DEM that covers the Riverscapes Context project extent.
Slope Analysis
Slope raster generated using gdal_dem tool specifying the slope option. Units are in degrees.
Hillshade
Hillshade raster generated using the gdal_dem tool specifying the hillshade option.
Vegetation
Existing Vegetation
LandFire Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) raster: Complexes of plant communities representing NatureServe's terrestrial Ecological Systems classification. Version 2.1.0 LF REMAP 2019: Reflects change and disturbance since completion of LF 2016 Remap, including the years of 2017, 2018, and 2019. The source is a single raster for the entire nation that is downloaded and then clipped to the riverscapes project extent.
Historic Vegetation
LandFire Biophysical Setting (BPS) raster: Vegetation system that may have been dominant on the landscape pre Euro-American settlement. Version 2.1.0 LF REMAP 2019: Reflects change and disturbance since completion of LF 2016 Remap, including the years of 2017, 2018, and 2019. The source is a single raster for the entire nation that is downloaded and then clipped to the riverscapes project extent.
Vegetation Cover
LandFire Existing Vegetation Cover (EVC) raster: Vertically projected percent cover of the live canopy layer for a specific area. Version 2.2.0: Reflects adjustments to vegetation and fuels since LF 2016 Remap in disturbed areas for disturbances recorded in 2017-2020. The source is a single raster for the entire nation that is downloaded and then clipped to the riverscapes project extent.
Vegetation Height
LandFire Existing Vegetation Height (EVH) raster: Average height of the dominant vegetation. Version 2.2.0: Reflects adjustments to vegetation and fuels since LF 2016 Remap in disturbed areas for disturbances recorded in 2017-2020. The source is a single raster for the entire nation that is downloaded and then clipped to the riverscapes project extent.
Historic Disturbance
LandFire Historic Disturbance (HDst) raster: The latest 10 years of Annual Disturbance products are used to identify disturbance year, type, and severity. Starting with LF Remap, HDist replaces VDist from previous LF versions incorporating pre-disturbance vegetation logic (based on disturbance year and vegetation type). The source is a single raster for the entire nation that is downloaded and then clipped to the riverscapes project extent.
Fuel Disturbance
LandFire Fuel Disturbance (FDst) raster: The latest 10 years of Annual Disturbance products representing disturbance year and original disturbance code. FDist was a refinement of VDist in LF 1.x products and is a refinement of Historical Disturbance in LF Remap to more accurately represent disturbance scenarios within the fuels environment. The source is a single raster for the entire nation that is downloaded and then clipped to the riverscapes project extent.
Fuel Characteristic Classification System
LandFire Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) raster: Describes the physical characteristics of a relatively uniform unit on a landscape that represents a distinct fire environment; provides land managers, regulators, and scientists with a nationally consistent and durable procedure to characterize and classify fuelbed characteristics to predict fuel consumption and smoke production. For LF Remap, FCCS will be released as part of the final release for CONUS. The source is a single raster for the entire nation that is downloaded and then clipped to the riverscapes project extent.
Vegetation Condition
LandFire VCC raster: A discrete metric that quantifies the amount that current vegetation has departed from the simulated historical vegetation reference conditions. The source is a single raster for the entire nation that is downloaded and then clipped to the riverscapes project extent.
Vegetation Departure
LandFire VDEP raster: Range from 0-100 depicting the amount that current vegetation has departed from simulated historical vegetation reference. The source is a single raster for the entire nation that is downloaded and then clipped to the riverscapes project extent.
Succession Classes
LandFire SCla raster: Current vegetation conditions with respect to vegetation species composition, cover, and height ranges of successional states occurring within each biophysical setting. The source is a single raster for the entire nation that is downloaded and then clipped to the riverscapes project extent.
Transportation
Roads
Railways
Canals
Land Management
Land Ownership
Land ownership obtained from the Bureau of Management (BLM) Land Surface Agency. A single ShapeFile was downloaded and then pre-processed to remove invalid geometries and other irregularities.
Fair Market Value
Fair Market Value raster. This raster was downloaded and converted to US dollars per hectare.
Political Boundaries
States
State boundaries obtained from the US Census Bureau.
Counties
County boundaries obtained from the US Census Bureau.
Geology
Geology
Shapefile of geologic units from the State Geologic Map Compilation (SGMC) available via the USGS; the dataset is a compiliation of geologic maps from each state with a field added ('GENERALIZE') for consistent symbology across the country.
Ecoregions
Ecoregions
Level IV ecoregions (also contains levels I-III) obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Climate
Precipitation
PRISM 30 year normal precipitation raster. Normals are baseline datasets describing average monthly and annual conditions over the most recent three full decades.
Mean Temperature
PRISM 30 year normal mean temperature raster. Normals are baseline datasets describing average monthly and annual conditions over the most recent three full decades.
Minimum Temperature
PRISM 30 year normal minimum temperature raster. Normals are baseline datasets describing average monthly and annual conditions over the most recent three full decades.
Maximum Temperature
PRISM 30 year normal maximum temperature raster. Normals are baseline datasets describing average monthly and annual conditions over the most recent three full decades.
Mean Dew Point Temperature
PRISM 30 year normal mean dew point temperature raster. Normals are baseline datasets describing average monthly and annual conditions over the most recent three full decades.
Minimum Vapor Pressure Deficit
PRISM 30 year normal minimum vapor pressure deficit raster. Normals are baseline datasets describing average monthly and annual conditions over the most recent three full decades.
Maximum Vapor Pressure Deficit
PRISM 30 year normal maximum vapor pressure deficit raster. Normals are baseline datasets describing average monthly and annual conditions over the most recent three full decades.
Hydrology
Flow line Network
National Hydrologic Dataset (NHD) High Resolution. 124,000 stream network polyline feature class. This is the original data downloaded as an ESRI file geodatabase and then converted to an open source GeoPackage.
Flowline Value Added Attributes
Catchment Value Added Attributes
NHD Area
NHDArea contains many additional water-polygon features. One of the more important is the stream/river feature. It represents the areal extent of the water in a wide stream/river with a basic set of attributes. These polygons typically encompass NHDFlowline artificial paths that represent the stream network. Artificial path carries the critical attributes of the stream/river, whereas NHDArea represents the geometric extent.
NHD Plus Flowline Value Added Attributes
NHD Catchment
NHDPlusCatchment represent drainage wings within watersheds.
NHD Waterbody
Waterbodies such as lake/pond features are represented in NHDWaterbody. They portray the spatial geometry and the attributes of the feature. These water polygons may have NHDFlowline artificial paths drawn through them to allow the representation of water flow direction. Other NHDWaterbody features are swamp/marsh, reservoir, playa, estuary, and ice mass.
Hydrological Units
The Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) is a seamless, national hydrologic unit dataset. Hydrologic units represent the area of the landscape that drains to a portion of the stream network. WBD contains eight levels of progressive hydrologic units identified by unique 2- to 16-digit codes.
100m Buffered Extent
The riverscapes context project extent polygon buffered by 100m.
500m Buffered Extent
The riverscapes context project extent polygon buffered by 500m.
Network Crossings
This polyline feeature class is the network featureclass intersected with road and rail crossings and ownership.
Network Intersection
The original NHD flow lines intersected with land ownership, road and rail. It includes several attributes from the NHD VAA table, in order to reduce the steps required by subsequent models. The attributes also include US state, ecoregions III and IV, and land ownership. This is the flow line feature class that is intended for use by all downstream models.
Catchments
The NHD Plus Catchment layer clipped to the riverscapes context project extent. It includes several attributes from the NHD VAA table, in order to reduce the steps required by subsequent models.
Processing Extent
The riverscapes context project extent polygon clipped to the dem data extent. This polygon can be used ensure that the resultant dataset always includes area within the dem data extent.
NHD Area Split
"The NHD Area layer split using the NHD Plus Catchment Layer, with the 'NHDPlusID' field from the Catchments attributed to each resulting NHD Area feature. This layer is intended to be used by other models when they need to use the NHD flow area dataset. The segmented geometries in this layer are intended to prevent errors in other models because the original NHD data can include vast feeatures that extend well beyond the watershed boundary extent.
NHD Waterbody Split
The NHD Waterbody layer split using the NHD Plus Catchment Layer, with the 'NHDPlusID' field from the Catchments attributed to each resulting NHD Area feature. This layer is intended to be used by other models when they need to use the NHD waterbody dataset. This is done so that the NHDPlusID field can be joined to the NHD VAA table to attribute waterbody features with the level path they are a part of.
Network 300m
This polyline feature class is the original NHDPlusHR flow line network segmented into 300m reach lengths. Segmentation that would produce a feature of less than 50m is not performed. And features that are less than 50m are left untouched.
Segmented Flow line Network Intersected with Infrastructure
This polyline feature class is the NETWORK300M feature class intersected with road and rail crossings and ownership.
National Dams
National Inventory of Dams
National Inventory of Dams (NID) is a database of dams in the United States. The NID is maintained by the US Army Corps of Engineers and contains information on the location, size, type, and purpose of dams.
National Wetland Inventory (NWI)
Wetlands
The National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) is a program of the US Fish and Wildlife Service that maps the location and extent of wetlands in the United States. The NWI provides data on wetland types, hydrology, and vegetation. The 'wetlands' layer is a subset of the NWI data that includes wetlands classified by type.
Riparian
The National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) is a program of the US Fish and Wildlife Service that maps the location and extent of wetlands in the United States. The NWI provides data on wetland types, hydrology, and vegetation. The 'riparian' layer is a subset of the NWI data that includes riparian areas classified by type.