Puget Sound Large River Delta Tidal Restriction and Wetland Mapping
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Cramer Fish Sciences proposes to develop a consistent and comprehensive spatial database of tidal barrier features (e.g., culverts, tide gates, levees, and dikes), and current and potential tidal wetland habitat extents for Puget Sound’s major large river deltas. Although numerous spatial datasets for tidal barrier and wetland habitat currently exist, these have not been synthesized into a consistent regional dataset. In addition, many datasets are incomplete or have become outdated. CFS will compile regional datasets into a consistent spatial database and use remote sensing to update and correct regional data, digitize missing features, and classify feature types and potential connectivity impacts. The resulting spatial database will be used to delineate current and potential tidal wetland habitat extents that integrate tidal barrier information developed in this proposal. The products of this project will directly support and leverage salmon recovery planning and evaluation in the Puget Sound region (e.g., ESRP’s River Deltas Learning Objectives, PSP’s Estuaries Vital Sign and Common Chinook Indicators, NOAA’s Salmon Habitat Status and Trends Monitoring Program, and WDFW’s intertidal fish passage assessments) by providing spatial data that can be used to identify and evaluate restoration opportunities, inform development and evaluation of recovery targets at regional and system scales, and identify data gaps to guide future research needs.
Project Goals and Objectives[edit]
- Compile available regional tidal barrier datasets into a spatial database with a consistent Coordinate Reference System (CRS).
- Review compiled regional datasets and remote sensing of recent aerial imagery to create a standardized spatial database of tidal barrier features for Puget Sound’s large river deltas (Figure 1) that includes updated, corrected, and missing features based on aerial imagery interpretation.
- Classify tidal connectivity impacts for mapped tidal barrier features based on feature types and aerial imagery interpretation.
- Support the WDFW’s development of field assessment protocols for evaluating barriers to fish passage in intertidal habitats.
- Ground truth and validate the remote sensing approach for identifying missing tidal barrier features, and classifying feature types and connectivity.
- Update regional datasets for current and potential tidal wetland habitat based on the synthesized and updated spatial database of tidal barrier features that integrates classifications of connectivity impacts.
- Make datasets generated as part of this project readily available through online data repositories to support regional salmon recovery planning.
Map showing the geomorphic tidal floodplain boundaries for the large river delta systems that will be used as our study area and focus of our analysis (Purple). These large river delta boundaries were delineated as part of the SHSTMP, and are nested within the full analysis extent of the program that includes nearshore and floodplain habitats. The seaward boundaries of the geomorphic tidal floodplain extend to the boundary of vegetated marsh at the delta front. The boundary extends landward within the geomorphic floodplain of each river valley to capture floodplain surfaces that could potentially be tidally flooded based on PMEP extents. Note that the landward boundary does not include maximum head of tidal influence upriver in these systems, rather the landward boundary stops where tidal flooding is likely confined to the bankfull channel system.
Data Discovery[edit]
We targeted spatial datasets that contained habitat, infrastructure, and hydrology data for estuarine and delta habitats that include features that block or potentially mute tidal connectivity including:
Primary structures
- Levees and dikes
- Roads and railways
Water crossing structures
- Bridges and causeways
- Tide gates and floodgates (e.g., flap gates, pump stations).
- Tidal muting structures (e.g., self-regulating tide gates)
- Culverts (e.g., open culverts that do not have a gate or muting structure)
Data discovery was focused on spatial datasets for the Puget Sound region and its large river deltas but many state-wide or larger geographical extent datasets were considered. We used two primary methods for data discovery
- Online searches focused on web-based federal, state, county, tribal, university, and non-governmental sources, and
- Data requests targeting local area experts and regional data stewards.
Online data searches and information on data sources where relevant data were found as well as potential sources where no relevant data were found were documented in a data discovery log. This information will support future updates of the data by providing information on when and what sources were reviewed for relevant data. Contact information and responses were also logged for data request to track information on data acquired from off-line sources.
Additional reference data on stream courses, land cover, wetlands, elevation, and other relevant estuarine habitat information (e.g., not a tidal barrier dataset) were compiled, documented, and considered in the regional data synthesis. These reference data support the classification of tidal wetland extents and correction of alignment and segmentation of tidal barrier features.
Hexagon Imagery Program 0.3 m 4-band aerial imagery collected during summer leaf on conditions from August to September in 2017 were used as our primary reference data for reviewing, correcting, and digitizing missing features, and classifying feature types and connectivity impacts. Other reference datasets used include:
- Google aerial imagery - Provides time series of aerial imagery that can be used to evaluate changes for a feature or reveal attributes not seen in the primary reference image.
- Coastal Atlas oblique shoreline imagery (DOE 2014) - Provides an oblique aerial view for some portions of the nearshore Puget Sound that can provide evidence for feature types or presence.
- Hill shades of digital elevation models - Provides information on the presence and topology of elevated features and channel features where features are obscured by cover or shadows.
- LiDAR available from the Puget Sound LiDAR Consortium - Provides information on the presence and topology of elevated features and channel features where features are obscured by cover or shadows.
- PEMP tidal exceedance polygons (PMEP 2018)- Provides the expected range of tidal influence and informs the potential and current wetland extent based on current topography.
Online Data Sources[edit]UW Washington State - GIS Data Spatial data from comprehensive change analysis for Puget Sound, barriers, wetland and shoreline features Preliminary Data Processing[edit]Initial investigations found that tidal barrier data layers varied with respect to their extent, methods, geometries, measurements, units, and documentation. In addition, many features are captured or described by multiple data layers that may have differing alignments within small spatial scales, and this redundancy creates problems for regional scale analysis and selection of appropriate data layers. Such variations in data structure, accuracy, and extent limit the usefulness and usability of available datasets at a regional scale and highlight the need for a consistent regional database structure and synthesis of tidal barrier features. Therefore, we created a new data structure that streamlined information, geometry, and attribution from available regional data sources into a uniform spatial framework with key attributes that describe feature types (primary and water crossing structure), tidal connectivity impacts, key physical information, and fish passage information into a consistent spatial database structure. Standardized Database Structure
Notes[edit]
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