What is Riverscapes Context?

Obtaining and processing geospatial data can be a time consuming undertaking with several considerations that need to be made (e.g., projections, spatial extents, etc.). Each online source has its own portal that needs to be navigated, with different protocols for delivering data. Often, data is delivered as tiles that must be subsequently merged, clipped and projected, with opportunities to inadvertently introduce errors into the dataset at each step. 

The Riverscapes Context Tool was created to streamline the process of data acquisition. Riverscapes Context uses an automated workflow to download and process various GIS datasets that are useful contextual cartographic layers, as well as datasets that are used as inputs to downstream models (https://riverscapes.freshdesk.com/a/solutions/articles/153000084062). The tool uses a combination of API calls and hosted national datasets to download and process data for a specified geographic extent (USGS HUC 10 watersheds by default). Data that is used in downstream models is processed into the formats the models require with necessary attributes. 

The data included in Riverscapes Context projects are:

• Climate rasters produced by PRISM (https://prism.oregonstate.edu/)
• US EPA ecoregions (shapefile)
• Geology (shapefile) from the State Geological Map Compilation (SGMC; https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/ds1052)
• Hydrology (geopackages) from the USGS National Hydrography Dataset (NHD; https://www.usgs.gov/national-hydrography/nhdplus-high-resolution)
• Land ownership (shapefile) 
• US State and county boundaries (shapefile)
• USGS National Elevation Dataset (NED) Digital Elevation Models (https://www.usgs.gov/publications/national-elevation-dataset). A hillshade and slope raster are derived from this layer.
• Transportation (roads, railroads and canals) datasets (shapefile) from the USGS National Transportation Dataset/Census Bureau TIGER (https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/guidance/tiger-data-products-guide.html)
• Several vegetation related rasters from LANDFIRE (https://landfire.gov/)