FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY DOCUMENTATION
VERSION 2005

TITLE: Gulf Sturgeon Critical Habitat (polygon)

Geodataset Name:       GULF_STURGEON_P
Geodataset Type:       SHAPEFILE
Geodataset Feature:    POLYGON
GENERAL DESCRIPTION:
These data represent the critical habitat for Gulf Sturgeon as designated by Federal Register Vol. 68, No. 53, Wednesday, March 19, 2003, Rules and Regulations.
DATA SOURCE(S):                    National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
SCALE OF ORIGINAL SOURCE MAPS:     Unknown
DATE OF AUTOMATION OF SOURCE:      December, 2003
GEODATASET EXTENT:                 Gulf of Mexico

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES:

Datafile Name: GULF_STURGEON_P.DBF
ITEM NAME WIDTH TYPE
FID
4 OID
Shape
0 Geometry
Unit_Num
2 Number
Name
50 String
Name_2
10 String
DESCRIPT
45 String

FEATURE ATTRIBUTE TABLES CODES AND VALUES:

Item
Item Description
FID Internal feature number.

Shape Feature geometry.

Unit_Num Number of Critical Habitat Unit as described in the Federal Register.

Name Name of physical location of designated unit

Name_2 Assigned Unit Number used for label purposes

DESCRIPT GeoPlan added field based on NAME

USER NOTES:
GeoPlan relied on the integrity of the attribute information within the original data.


A note concerning data scale:

Scale is an important factor in data usage. Certain scale 
datasetsare not suitable for some project, analysis, or
modelling purposes. Please be sure you are using the best
available data.

1:24000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that 
are at the county level.

1:24000 data should NOT be used for high accuracy base 
mapping such as property parcel boundaries.

1:100000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that 
are at the multi-county or regional level.

1:250000 scale datasets are recommended for projects that 
are at the regional or state level or larger.

Vector datasets with no defined scale or accuracy should 
be considered suspect. Make sure you are familiar with 
your data before using it for projects or analyses. Every 
effort has been made to supply the user with data 
documentation. For additional information, see the 
References sectionand the Data Source Contact section of 
this documentation. For more information regarding scale 
and accuracy, see our web pages at:

http://www.geoplan.ufl.edu/education.html

REFERENCES:
68 FR 13370

DATA LINEAGE SUMMARY:
The base shoreline data set used in this process was the Coastal Assessment Framework shapefile from NOAA/NOS/SPO.  Additional reference data sets included Mr SID CIR Imagery of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway from www.atlas.lsu.edu, TIGER Line shapefiles of roads in Louisiana and Florida from www.geographynetwork.com and road and railroad shapefiles in Mississippi from MARIS.  Maptech's Digital Chart Kit, Regions 8 and 17 featuring NOAA Digital Charts and a text description of the 72 COLREGS Demarcation lines from www.navcen.uscg.gov/mwv/regulations/33CFR080/33CFR80_GCD08.htm were also used.  These additional layers were used to designate boundaries on individual units as dictated by the critical habitat designations described in the Federal Register Document.
Inland units were created by digitizing a polygon slightly larger than the water body it represented.  The new polygons were then "edit clipped" to the shoreline to exactly match the shoreline.  In areas where the entire water body was not included, the boundaries were drawn following the feature described in Federal Register document.  (Ex.  The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway was digitized from the Mr SID's and used as the western boundary of the polygon.  Bays with adjacent rivers or bayous that were excluded had their boundaries created by drawing a straight line across the river's mouth as dictated by the Document.)  Every effort was made to exclude features at locations consistent with the descriptions in the Document.
Near shore units were created by creating a 1 nautical mile buffer of the coastline (9nm in the case of the Suwannee Sound) or barrier island as indicated by the Document.  The seaward side of these buffers was used as the southern boundary of the units.  For the passes between islands, line segments were digitized to represent the 72 COLREGS Demarcation lines and 1 nautical mile buffers were created from those lines.  Those buffers were merged with the buffers of the islands to complete the southern boundaries of the units.  Every effort was made to accurately follow the descriptions of the 72 COLREGS lines.  Whenever coordinates were used in the description, those coordinates were used in the creation of the buffers.  When no coordinates were given, the lines/buffers were created by following the descriptions in the text.
The Maptech software was used primarily as a guide to locate areas by name.  The digital charts were also useful for accuracy evaluation in placement of the 72 COLREGS lines, as they were visible on the charts and could be compared to the lines digitized from text descriptions.
Process Date: 20031223

Dataset moved. Process Date:
Dataset copied. Process Date:
GeoPlan added Descript based on NAME, renamed file from gulf_sturgeon_CH_units8-14_poly to gulf_sturgeon_p.shp, and projected to FGDL Albers Process Date:
MAP PROJECTION PARAMETERS:

Projection                          ALBERS
Datum                               HPGN
Units                               METERS
Spheroid                            GRS1980
1st Standard Parallel               24  0  0.000
2nd Standard Parallel               31 30  0.000
Central Meridian                   -84 00  0.000
Latitude of Projection's Origin     24  0  0.000
False Easting (meters)              400000.00000
False Northing (meters)             0.00000

DATA SOURCE CONTACT (S):

Name:
Abbr. Name:
Address:


Phone:

Web site:
E-mail:
Contact Person:
         Phone:
        E-mail:
National Coastal Data Development Center (NCDDC)
NCDCC

Stennis Space Center, MS
39529
228-688-2354

chris.henton@noaa.gov Chris Henton

FGDL CONTACT:
Name:                   FLORIDA GEOGRAPHIC DATA LIBRARY
Abbr. Name:             FGDL
Address:                Florida Geographic Data Library
                        431 Architecture Building
                        PO Box 115706
                        Gainesville, FL  32611-5706
Web site:               http://www.fgdl.org

Contact FGDL: 

      Technical Support:	        http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfeed.html
      FGDL Frequently Asked Questions:  http://www.fgdl.org/fgdlfaq.html
      FGDL Mailing Lists:		http://www.fgdl.org/fgdl-l.html
      For FGDL Software:                http://www.fgdl.org/software.html