Wetlands Data Command

The Wetlands Data command of CivilGEO software allows the user to display the graphical representations of the type, size, and location of the wetlands, riparian, or related aquatic habitats in the United States from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. This command also allows the user to download the wetland and riparian data of the United States as shapefile data.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (hereafter Service) is the principal Federal agency that provides the citizens of the United States and its Trust Territories with current geospatially referenced information on the status, extent, characteristics, and functions of wetlands, riparian, deep water, and related aquatic habitats.

Note that this command works only within the United States.

Displaying Wetlands Data on Map View

Follow the steps given below to display the wetland, riparian, and related aquatic habitat data on the Map View:

1. From the Map Data ribbon menu, expand the Wetlands Data menu item and then choose the Wetlands Data command. Alternatively, you can simply click on the Wetlands Data command icon.
   
2. The Wetlands Data dialog box will be displayed.
   

The following section describes how to interact with the above dialog box.

General Specifications

In this section, the user can specify the name of the wetlands layer in the Layer group name entry field. By default, the layer group name is “Wetlands”.

Clicking on the [OK] button will cause the software to display the wetland, riparian and related aquatic habitat data on the Map View.

The software will then place the wetlands data in a layer group in the Map Data Layers panel.

The Map Data Layers panel will contain a legend detailing the contents of the displayed wetlands data. The user can expand the layer to see the legend details.

Downloading Wetlands Data as Shapefile

Follow the steps given below to download the wetland, riparian, and related aquatic habitat data as shapefile data:

1. From the Map Data ribbon menu, expand the Wetlands Data menu item and then choose the Wetlands Data Download command.
   
2. The Wetlands Data Download dialog box will be displayed.
   

The following sections describe how to interact with the above dialog box.

General Specifications

In this section, by default, the Layer group name is “Wetlands Data” which can be changed by the user. Click the […] button beside the Shapefile path entry to specify the directory location to save the downloaded shapefiles.

Wetlands Data Boundary Limits

In this section, choose one of the three options for defining the geographic location:

Current screen limits: The software will use the existing extent of the Map View screen display as a boundary limit for wetlands data to be downloaded.
User-defined limits: The user can click on the [Pick] button and draw a rectangle on the Map View representing the user-defined limits for the wetlands data to be downloaded.
Model extents: If a project model has been defined, this option will create a bounding rectangular region to the extents of the defined model, plus an additional buffer boundary.

Clicking on the [OK] button will cause the software to download the wetlands, riparian and related aquatic habitat data as shapefile data. The software will also display the data on the Map View as shown below.

After the wetland map data has been downloaded, the software will then load the downloaded wetlands data in a new group in the Map Data Layers panel. Expand the group to see the details of the loaded layers. The user can also export the layers to CAD by right-clicking on a layer and then selecting the Export to CAD command from the displayed context menu.