[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 145 (Friday, July 27, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39189-39191]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-18749]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Geological Survey
Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC); Public Comment on the
Proposal to Develop a ``Riparian Mapping Standard.''
ACTION: Notice; request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The FGDC is soliciting public comments on the proposal to
develop a ``Riparian Mapping Standard.'' If the proposal is approved,
the standard will be developed following the FGDC standards development
and approval process and will be considered for adoption by the FGDC.
In its assigned federal leadership role in the development of the
National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), the Committee recognizes
that FGDC standards must also meet the needs and recognize the views of
State and local governments, academia, industry, and the public. The
purpose of this notice is to solicit such views. The FGDC invites the
community to review the proposal and comment on the objectives, scope,
approach, and usability of the standard; identify existing related
standards; and indicate their interest in participating in the
development of the standard.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before August 24, 2001.
ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted via Internet or by postal mail.
Reviewers may send comments via Internet to:
[email protected]. If submitting comments by postal mail,
please send a soft copy version on 3.5-inch diskette in Microsoft Word
or Rich Text Format (preferred) format and one copy of a hardcopy
version to the FGDC Secretariat (attn: Julie Binder Maitra) at U.S.
Geological Survey, 590 National Center, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive,
Reston, Virginia 20192.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Following is the proposal for the ``Riparian
Mapping Standard'':
Project Title: Adoption of a Riparian Mapping Standard for areas of
the United States where mean annual evaporation exceeds mean annual
precipitation.
Date of Proposal: November 14, 2000.
Type of Standard: This proposed standard is classified as a Data
Classification Standard (definition and hierarchical nomenclature) and
the accompanying Data Symbology or Presentation Standard (cartographic
conventions) according to the FGDC Standards Reference Model.
Submitting Organization: Subcommittee for Wetlands, Federal
Geographic Data Committee
Point of Contact: Bill O. Wilen, Chair, National Wetlands
Inventory, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Room
400, Arlington, VA 22203, E-mail: [email protected], Phone: 703-358-
2161, Fax: 703-358-1869.
Objectives: (1) To develop a unified Riparian Mapping Standard to
define riparian, delineate its application, and to describe and define
cartographic conventions for use in riparian mapping for the National
Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).
(2) To minimize redundancy in effort in developing riparian mapping
standards, ensure consistency in application of standards, facilitate
data sharing and integrate riparian spatial data with data developed
under the FGDC Wetlands Standard.
Scope: What is Riparian? (taken from ``A System for Mapping
Riparian Areas in the Western United States,'' U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, December 1997) http://wetlands.fws.gov/Riparian.htm
``There are many riparian definitions used by government agencies
and the private sector. Riparian initiatives ofen concentrate on either
functionality or land use application where an exact definition is not
required. However, a riparian definition is essential for consistent
and uniform identification and mapping. For these purposes, in the area
of applicability:''
`Riparian areas are plant communities contiguous to and affected by
surface and subsurface hydrologic features of perennial or intermittent
lotic and lentic water bodies (rivers, streams, lakes, or drainage
ways). Riparian areas have one or both of the following
characteristics: (1) Distinctively different vegetative species than
adjacent areas, and (2) species similar to adjacent areas but
exhibiting more vigorous or robust growth forms. Riparian areas are
usually transitional between wetland and upland.' ''
This proposed national standard would standardize and ensure
consistency of the geospatial mapping of riparian areas in the United
States where evaporation exceeds precipitation. The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service has adopted this standard, developed with Federal and
State agency participation, as an Agency
[[Page 39190]]
Riparian Standard. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recently
completed testing of this mapping standard to assess its completeness
and utility by Federal client agencies (sample maps are provided with
this proposal). Member agencies in the Federal Geographic Data
Committee's (FGDC) Subcommittee for Wetlands have reviewed the Agency
Riparian Standard and have agreed to propose it as an FGDC Standard.
This standards development process under the FGDC would expand the
review of the Agency standard, make any needed changes identified
during the process, and propose the riparian mapping standards for
adoption under the Federal Geographic Data Committee Standards. Once
adopted, the Riparian Standard would be made available both through the
Service's and the FGDC websites. Once a riparian standard is adopted,
the digitized wetland-riparian maps will be made a part of the National
Spatial Data Infrastructure.
Justification/Benefits: Riparian areas are among the most important
vegetative communities for wildlife species. Chaney, et al. (1990)
observed that greater than 75 percent of terrestrial wildlife species
in the Great Basin region of eastern Oregon, as well as in southeastern
Wyoming, are dependent on riparian areas. In Arizona and New Mexico, 80
percent of all vertebrates use riparian areas for at least half their
life cycles; more than half of these are totally dependent on riparian
areas. Similarly, the Arizona Riparian Council found that 60-75 percent
of Arizona's resident wildlife species depend on riparian areas to
sustain their populations, yet these areas occupy less than 0.5 percent
of the state's land area. Aquatic and fish productivity are directly
related to a properly functioning and healthy riparian habitat
(Washington Dept. Fish and Wildlife 1995). Mapping of riparian areas is
an important tool for managing wildlife habitat in the United States.
The Fish and Wildlife Service, through the National Wetlands
Inventory, is Congressionally mandated to identify, classify, and
digitize all wetlands and deepwater habitats in the United States. The
Service is also authorized to map habitats used by fish and wildlife
resources under the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956. The Fish and
Wildlife Service chairs the FGDC Wetlands Subcommittee. As such, the
Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for coordinating the
development, use, sharing and dissemination of wetlands data. The Fish
and Wildlife Service's Agency Wetlands Standards were adopted as FGDC
Wetlands Standards in December 1996. The Wetlands Standard (Cowardin et
al. 1979) is the basis for all wetlands maps prepared by the Fish and
Wildlife Service's National Wetlands Inventory. The National Wetlands
Inventory has extensive mapping expertise and knowledge involving
wetland identification and classification, photo interpretation, and
digital data capabilities. Periodically the Fish and Wildlife Service
has added upland habitat at the request of funding agencies. Reflecting
this expertise, the National Wetlands Inventory is asked to provide
resource mapping guidance, and with increasing frequency, is requested
to map riparian areas of the western United States. To meet the
increasing riparian mapping requests, the Fish and Wildlife Service,
with assistance and review by other Federal and State agencies,
developed an Agency riparian mapping standard in December 1997 entitled
``A System for Mapping Riparian Areas in the Western United States.''
Riparian mapping standards were necessary to ensure consistency in
riparian mapping efforts in various regions and for the various Federal
agencies that were funding these efforts. Riparian standards consistent
with the FGDC Wetlands Standard were needed for combined wetland-
riparian mapping. Compatibility with the FGDC Wetlands Standard is also
very important because the Fish and Wildlife Service has completed
draft or final wetland maps for over 90 percent of the conterminous
United States using this standard. Because the Agency Riparian Standard
was developed using the same hierarchical and cartographic system as
the FGDC Wetlands Standard, they can be used in concert. The Fish and
Wildlife Service has begun mapping riparian areas for land management
agencies using the Agency Riparian Standard in conjunction with wetland
mapping using the Wetlands Standards. During the three years the
Service has used Riparian Standards, it has produced 41 wetland-
riparian maps at the scale of 1:24,000 that are available for review
and discussion.
A few riparian mapping projects have been completed by non-Federal
organizations that did not use the hierarchical Wetland Standard as a
model. These projects do not complement the Wetlands Standard and
cannot be used for comparison across projects and for data sharing.
They are also in variance with the Fish and Wildlife Service's Agency
Standard. To avoid this incompatibility continuing, it is important to
develop and adopt a Federal standard that can be reviewed, commented
on, and adopted by outside organizations on a voluntary basis to assure
uniformity of data development. Riparian data developed using FGDC
Standards can be added to the National Spatial Data Infrastructure.
Riparian data developed using other standards would not be added to the
wetlands layer of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure and not
available to agencies that need to use the data. Having an FGDC
Riparian Standard would remove this impediment to data sharing. It is
also expected this riparian mapping standard will foster new and
enhanced coordination among Federal and States agencies, standardize
data, and advance data sharing.
Potential Participants: Because of its legislative mandates and
authorities, the Fish and Wildlife Service will lead this effort to
develop an FGDC Riparian Standard through its Chair of the Wetland
Subcommittee of the FGDC. Every Federal agency with interest in
wetlands and riparian mapping is represented on this Subcommittee. The
Wetlands Subcommittee agencies involved with the development of the
Riparian Standard as an FGDC Standard will be:
Principal Agencies for Standards Development Group
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, DOI (Chair)
U.S. Bureau of Land Management, DOI
National Park Service, DOI
U.S. Forest Service, USDA
Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA
National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA
U.S. Army Corp of Engineers
U.S. Geological Survey
Other Reviewing Agencies in the Wetlands Subcommittee
Bureau of Reclamation, DOI
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Department of Energy
Biological Resources Division, USGS
Office of Surface Mining, DOI
Department of the Interior
National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
U.S. Marine Corp
U.S. Navy
National Air and Space Administration
Tennessee Valley Authority
U.S. Air Force
Department of Housing and Urban Development
There was wide participation in the development of the Fish and
Wildlife Service's Agency Riparian Standard. The principal authors of
the Riparian Standard are David Dall, Chuck Elliott, and Dennis Peters;
NWI Regional Wetland Coordinators in the Western
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United States. Several early drafts were reviewed by National Wetlands
Inventory staff of all the Fish and Wildlife Service's 7 Regions.
Subsequent review was provided by Field Offices of the Division of
Ecological Services and Refuges. Valuable review and criticism of the
draft was provided by the following outside agencies and organizations
as the draft approached the final version: Arizona Game and Fish
Department, California Department of Fish and Game, Iowa Department of
Natural Resources, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, Louisiana
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Nebraska Game and Parks
Commission, Nevada Division of Wildlife, Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, Wyoming Game and Fish
Department, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Bureau of Land
Management, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. National Park Service, U.S.
Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Office of Surface Mining,
University of Montana (School of Forest Resources), Wyoming Natural
Diversity Database, and Donn Kesselheim.
The Fish and Wildlife Service's Agency Riparian Standard has been
available and distributed in printed format for three years. It has
also been available on the Internet at the National Wetlands Inventory
website at http://wetlands.fws.gov for three years. In Step 8,
Coordinate Public Review, in order to ensure a systematic review of the
draft FGDC standards and the resultant maps, we envision one or more
regional meetings, in the area of applicability. States, conservation
groups, academia, and industry would be invited. Suggestions for
modifications would be reviewed by the Standards Development Group and
recommendations made to the Wetlands Subcommittee as a whole. The
Subcommittee would be the approving body for the draft standard and for
subsequent changes that are identified after implementation.
The draft standard will include maintenance and update procedures.
The Subcommittee will use a consensual method of decision making for
all changes suggested. Consensus is defined in Circular A-119 as
general agreement, but not necessarily unanimity, and includes a
process for attempting to resolve objections by interested parties, as
long as all comments have been fairly considered, each objector is
advised of the disposition of his or her objection(s) and the reasons
why, and the consensus body members are given an opportunity to change
their votes after reviewing the comments. Riparian mapping is a dynamic
enterprise; changes and refinement are expected throughout the life of
the Standard.
Related Standards: The proposed FGDC Riparian Standard was
developed in the hierarchical framework of the existing FGDC Wetlands
Standard (Cowardin et al.), using standard wetland mapping conventions.
The developers of the proposed Riparian Standard are experts in wetland
mapping using the FGDC Wetlands Standard. The proposed standard is
fully integrated with and does not overlap with the FGDC Wetlands
Standard and has been used to produce a few composite wetland-riparian
maps. Once a standard is in place, the data generated using that
standard will be added to the National Spatial Data Infrastructure and
will be available over the Internet.
A Vegetation Classification Standard was recently adopted by the
FGDC. That standard was established to ``enable Federal agencies to
collect vegetation information in a standard format and apply a
standard classification system to vegetation in reports and on maps.
This uniform National Vegetation Classification Standard (NVCS) should
complement regional or local classifications that are designed to meet
more specific objectives.'' Although the FGDC vegetation standard
contains associations of vegetative communities that would fit the
riparian definition, in reality, those communities can be both riparian
and upland. This makes them incompatible with the need by land managing
agencies to map riparian areas.
There are no other Federal riparian mapping standards available nor
are there any similar Federal riparian mapping standards being
developed. There are neither any ``voluntary consensus standards,'' nor
any ``non-consensus standards,'' ``Industry standards,'' ``Company
standards,'' nor ``de facto standards,'' to adopt for mapping riparian
areas as defined in OMB Revised Circular No. A-119, dated February 10,
1998. If available, they would be used even though A-119 does not apply
to this action because the proposed riparian standards are not for
procurement or regulatory activities.
The Fish and Wildlife Service's Agency Riparian Standard was
developed by Federal employees, does not contain any proprietary
information, is not copyrighted, and has no licensing limitations.
The proposed FGDC Riparian Standards stands independent of any
specific technology application. It does not limit any appropriate
vendor from access.
Resources Required: FGDC Wetland Subcommittee members will provide
the resources to prepare the working draft. Funding may be sought from
the FGDC for travel by participants from States and other concerned
organizations for the one or more regional meetings being considered.
Target Authorization Body: The FGDC Steering Committee is the
target authorization body for this standard.
Karen C. Siderelis,
Geographic Information Officer.
[FR Doc. 01-18749 Filed 7-26-01; 8:45 am]
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