Washington Hydrography Framework

PROJECT CHARTER

The project charter is a living document that sets forth the principles and functions which organizations can subscribe to and later use to develop the project business plan.

Project Sponsors

Washington State Department of Ecology

Washington State Department of Natural Resources

Project Partners

Clark County, WA

Environmental Systems Research Institute

Interorganizational Resource Information Coordinating Council

Rayonier Inc.

King County, WA

Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

Oregon Water Resources Division

Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission

Puget Sound Regional Council

Snohomish County, WA

Spokane County, WA

Thurston County, WA (Thurston Geodata Center)

US Army Corps of Engineers

US Geological Survey, National Mapping Division

US National Marine Fisheries Service

US Fish and Wildlife Service

US Forest Service

US Navy

US Bureau of Reclamation

US Environment Protection Agency

USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service

WA Department of Fish & Wildlife

WA Department of Natural Resources

WA Department of Health

WA Department Ecology

WA Department of Revenue

WA Department of Transportation

Weyerhaeuser Co.

INTRODUCTION

Demands upon the state's water resources continue to rise, being drawn upon for human consumption, agricultural use, habitat sustainability and commercial and recreational interests. As a result, the need for surface water information has also increased, as resource managers require comprehensive and detailed analysis prior to making difficult decisions.

These analytical capabilities are restricted due to the limited methods available to effectively store, access, analyze, model, and trade hydrographic data between interested parties. Lack of a standard surface water information system has prompted numerous implementations of varying size, geographic extent, detail, and, above all, identification methods. As a result, information is not readily exchanged and data collection efforts are duplicated across agencies. Additionally, decision making is often impaired as historic surface water data is often unavailable due to inefficient storage and access methods.

The Hydrography Framework Project will build a statewide database of hydrography data. It will accommodate the inherently dynamic nature of the state's water resources and allow various users to depict their area of interest in a uniform and consistent manner. The project will define and improve our to access to, and enhancement of, this ever changing information set and will afford us the opportunity to use the same information source for display and analysis.

This project is different from previous statewide hydrography efforts and should be viewed as a logical continuation and refinement of those efforts. It will not create a new unique identifier for hydrography data, but will unify efforts previously undertaken. It will develop a database for water courses, as well as water bodies, shorelines, wetlands, freshwater springs and marine areas and will employ a data model that is scale independent. Finally, the initial phase of the project will be accomplished within a two year time frame.

KEY OBJECTIVES AND BENEFITS

The Hydrography Framework Project has six key objectives, each providing benefits to all who use hydrography data in Washington state:A unified coding scheme will be utilized for hydrography data that will facilitate access to data associated with other established coding schemes.

A scale-independent model for hydrography data will be used. This will allow for the inclusion of locally produced and project data. It will allow the use of a single set of hydrography data for many scales.

Uniform update and maintenance procedures will be established that will allow updating and archival as close to the source as practical.

A phased implementation approach will be used for the hydrography project to ensure success in manageable stages.

The project will create a fully developed data attribute structure in an effort to support the informational needs of all participants. A base or "core" set of attributes will be defined and populated in the initial implementation phase.

Project sponsors and partners will identify funding and key resources to complete the project statewide by January, 2001.

MEASURES OF SUCCESS

Project success will be measured primarily by five criteria.

• A minimum of ten organizations participate in the project including two representatives from private companies.

• Project partners adopt a single physical data model.

• Funding is garnered for project financing.

• Project partners identify and fill organizational roles needed to make Hydrography Framework a reality in Washington State.

• The complete implementation of the Hydrography Framework is completed statewide by January, 2001.
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KEY DELIVERABLES

The Hydrography Framework Project is divided into six general phases. Each phase will produce a number of key deliverables. Each phase, along with its key deliverables and tentative dates, is identified below:

Scoping Phase

• Project scope document
• Initial project assumptions
• Initial functional decomposition diagram
• Initial business process model
• Definition of partner functional business areas, drivers, and data needs
• Conceptual data model
• Test project scope against conceptual model using data analysis

Requirements Phase

• List of requirements for Hydrography Framework

- Business requirements

- Data requirements

• Define organizational roles and responsibilities

• Project prototype

• Refined functional decomposition diagram

• Refined Business Process model

• Finalized logical data model

• Test project requirements against logical data model using data analysis

Design Phase

• Draft partnership agreements

• Establish tabular/spatial data standards and procedures

• Finalized physical data model

• Test project requirements against physical data model using process navigation

Initial Implementation & Data Construction Phase

• Data96 data loaded
• Other selected partner data loaded
• Data cleaned and routed

• Identify technology requirements
• Cross reference to other identified ID systems
• Test initial data against identified business requirements

Maintenance Construction Phase

• Develop update procedures
• Program update and maintenance modules
• Data available on the Internet
• Test Internet transaction capabilities

Final Implementation Phase

• Participants begin to populate the full data model
• Begin maintenance

• Participating organizations have access to initial phase hydrography data and begin to improve on it

PROJECT SCOPE

The project scope is defined by several areas of interest. These are: functional capabilities, data products, geographical area, and participant organizations. A brief summary of the project is noted below.

Functional Capabilities - A hydrography database will be established for which the users will have access and update capabilities.

Data Products - The project involves surface waters only. Represented within a routed dynamic segmentation model, it supports: water bodies represented by lakes, ponds, reservoirs, wetlands, bays/ocean, and the shorelines bounding those features; water courses represented by streams, rivers, aqueducts, conveyances, direction of flow, stream routes, stream segments, and river banks; and water feature points represented by springs and seeps. This database will also contain structure for the linear, polygonal and point data needed to support flood inundation information. All spatial information will be organized in a logical hydrography structure based on some delineation of hydrologic watersheds, and will be networked in the appropriate fashion. Two data items within the database will be developed and maintained to facilitate cross-walks to other established hydrography data sets. This project will include a complete set of project and metadata documentation.

Geographical area - The Project will be applicable to the entire state of Washington.

Participant Organizations - The project will focus on the identification of needs of the members or partner organizations and will identify a caretaker organization(s). Partners will establish and agree to a core set of standard features and attributes; and ensure continuing collaborated maintenance of the data set in order to keep it current.

KEY ASSUMPTIONS

The following are critical to the success of the Hydrography Framework Project. Key assumptions are:

• Partner organizations agree to a unified coding scheme including the LLID as the primary unique identifier, and the EPA River Reach Identifier as the secondary identifier. A new unique coding scheme will not be created.
• An existing Hydrography model will be used - we will start with the Washington Surface Water Information System (WASWIS) but it may be modified or improved where practical.
• Only surface waters will be addressed in the project.
• Standard Framework attributes will be defined for water bodies, water courses, and water points that will support partner needs and basic information or metadata about each feature will tracked.
• All spatial data in the Department of Natural Resources DATA '96 data set will be cleaned and routed and used to populate the Framework database in the initial phase. This data set includes the salt water shoreline from the DNR's Aquatic Resources Division, as well as the wetlands data that will be used for initial Framework data population. The DATA '96 spatial data set represents the most comprehensive state-wide hydrography data in existence for Washington state. It contains those hydrographic features represented on US Geological Survey 1:24,000-scale 7.5-min. quadrangle maps and has been augmented through photogrametric methods to include additional detailed stream features in selected project areas.
• Clear and consistent standard procedures for data clean up will be developed. Implement these standards and/or procedures so that data clean up and inclusion of additional information is repeatable across the different regions of the state.
• Hydrography Framework metadata will be served with the data and some metadata will reside on the clearing house server.

• Build maintenance and update procedures for Framework data to allow for the update and improvement of hydrography data as close to the source as practical.
• The Cadastral Framework Project establishes an Internet presence and leads the effort to create a template for identifying and defining organizational roles and responsibilities that we may or may not chose to modify to work with hydrography.
• The definition of project completion includes: full state coverage, metadata, all attributes (including names), web access (read, update), and routed streams with correct flow.
• The project will implement a phased approach.
• Through a formal arrangement, the Hydrography Framework Project will coordinate with other Framework Projects on an ongoing basis to ensure vertical integration, utilize common maintenance procedures, coordinate distribution location, etc.
• The Hydrography Framework Project will be managed as a set of phased deliverables. Deliverable for each phase will be tested before we move to the next phase.

• Scoping Phase

• Requirements Phase

• Design and Testing Phase

• Initial Implementation Phase

• Maintenance and Construction Phase

• Final Implementation Phase
• Funding and key staff resources are available to complete the project by January, 2001.

HYDROGRAPHY FRAMEWORK GROUP DECISION MAKING PROCESS

The Decisions that affect the process or progress of this project are made by consensus.

Decisions are made by consensus. Consensus is achieved when:

• Everyone has a chance to offer their ideas and opinions
• Everyone's ideas and opinions are considered
• Most are in support and no one actively opposes the decision
• Everyone will support the decision

If consensus is in doubt or a critical decision is being made, then a voting procedure will be used as follows:

• Four fingers raised = I will support it
• Three fingers raised = I will not oppose it
• Two fingers raised = I will not support it
• One finger raised = I cannot live with this. It conflicts with my organizational goals and/or personal values.

If anyone in the group raises one or two finger, the decision is stalled and discussion must continue until all votes indicate three or more fingers. In the case where a decision is deadlocked, the Hydrography Framework Group has the option of presenting the issue to the Framework Management Group for resolution.

Critical decision making required of the group will be announced at least 2 weeks prior to the next Hydrography Framework Group Meeting. All Information needed to inform the group of issues needing a critical decision will be made available at that time. All items requiring critical decision making will appear on the meeting agenda and will be the first items of business at the meeting. A decision log will be kept listing the decision made along with the date. Decisions will be recorded in the meeting minutes and distributed to the Group.

SUB-TEAMS

The Hydrography Framework Group recognizes the need from time to time to form sub-teams to tackle specific areas or concerns relating to the Hydrography Framework Project. A sub-team may be formed by the Group after considering a proposal from any of its membership. The role and responsibility of the Sub-team is to research, define, and develop sub topics related to the Hydro Framework program. The Hydrography Framework Group will coordinate all sub-teams and provide the forum for discussion and critical decision making.

HOW PROJECT FITS TACTICALLY WITH OTHERS

The Project will contribute hydrography data to the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). The NSDI is a nationwide coordinated approach to support public and private sector applications of GIS data. The Project will be used as a test bed for the development of a FGDC Hydrography Framework standard. The Project will learn from other efforts, such as those occurring in Florida.

This Project is endorsed by the Washington State Geographic Information Council (WAGIC). The WAGIC coordinates and facilitates the use and development of the state's geographic information. The Project will be coordinated with other framework efforts, such as the Cadastral Framework Project and the Transportation Framework Project. Solutions to the adoption of partnership arrangements and providing data through the Internet will be reviewed and applied to the Hydrography Framework Project where appropriate.

The Project will coordinate with the Washington Governor's Joint Natural Resources Commission which is dealing with water issues and endangered species listings.

February 10, 1999