Introduction
Geographic information systems data was used to attribute 15 disturbance variables to the catchments of mapped river reaches to calibrate an index of cumulative disturbance that considered effects originating from both local and upstream catchments.
These features contain local and network catchment human disturbance variables representing anthropogenic alterations to landscapes in California, including land use, roads, dams, mines, and point-source pollution sites. The source datasets that were compiled and attributed to catchments were identified as being: (1) meaningful for assessing fish habitat; (2) consistent across the entire study area in the way that they were assembled; (3) representative of conditions in the past 10 years, and (4) of sufficient spatial resolution that they could be used to make valid comparisons among local catchment units.
These variables can be linked to the reaches and catchments of the National Hydrography Dataset Plus (NHDPlus). These data were collected for multiple purposes. First, they were gathered in support of conducting a condition assessment of fluvial waterbodies throughout the United States in support of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP). Second, these data were intended to be made available to NFHAP Partnerships as well as other users interested in acquiring consistently-organized information available characterizing river systems over larger regions. This work was supported by local, state, and federal partners of NFHAP, including the U.S. Geological Survey.
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