To cite this article: Lizhu Wang , Dana Infante , Peter Esselman , Arthur Cooper , Dayong Wu , William Taylor , Doug
Beard , Gary Whelan & Andrea Ostroff (2011) A Hierarchical Spatial Framework and Database for the National River Fish Habitat Condition Assessment, Fisheries, 36:9, 436-449, DOI: 10.1080/03632415.2011.607075
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03632415.2011.607075
ABSTRACT: Fisheries management programs, such as the National
Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP), urgently need a nationwide
spatial framework and database for health assessment and
policy development to protect and improve riverine systems. To meet
this need, we developed a spatial framework and database using National
Hydrography Dataset Plus (1:100,000-scale); http://www.
horizon-systems.com/nhdplus). This framework uses interconfluence
river reaches and their local and network catchments as fundamental
spatial river units and a series of ecological and political
spatial descriptors as hierarchy structures to allow users to extract or
analyze information at spatial scales that they define. This database
consists of variables describing channel characteristics, network position/
connectivity, climate, elevation, gradient, and size. It contains
a series of catchment-natural and human-induced factors that are
known to influence river characteristics. Our framework and database
assembles all river reaches and their descriptors in one place
for the first time for the conterminous United States. This framework
and database provides users with the capability of adding data,
conducting analyses, developing management scenarios and regulation,
and tracking management progresses at a variety of spatial scales.
This database provides the essential data needs for achieving
the objectives of NFHAP and other management programs. The
downloadable beta version database is available at http://ec2-184-
73-40-15.compute-1.amazonaws.com/nfhap/main/.
