Wetland and stream buffer size requirements-a review

Conclusions:Generally, mimimum buffer widths may help maintain natural physical and chemical characteristics of resources whereas greater buffer widths may be required to maintain biological components of many wetlands and streams. Fixed width buffers do not consider site-specific conditions, and therefore may not adequately buffer aquatic resources. Variable width buffers, albeit more site specific and effective, are more expensive and offer less predictability for planning purposes.Thresholds/Learnings:Stream buffers should be a minimum of 15 to 30m in width to be effective in protecting the ecological integrity of wetlands and streams.

Categories: Publication; Types: Citation; Tags: Natural cover amount, Natural cover heterogeneity, biodiversity, buffer width, fied width, All tags... multiple, site, stream buffers, variable width, water quality, world-wide, Fewer tags

National Fish Habitat Partnership (NFHP) 90 Meter Buffers of the NHDPlusV1 for the Conterminous United States

This geodatabase contains 90 meter buffers of streams within the National Hydrography Dataset Plus Version 1 (NHDPlusV1). These buffers were developed by converting NHDPlusV1 flowlines to a 30m grid, then running a euclidean allocation function in ArcPy to generate buffer zones. For flowlines representing artificial paths within NHD area river polygons, buffers extend from the outside edges ("banks") of the polygon outward. The source code for buffer development can be found at https://github.com/ArthurCooper/NFHP-Buffer-Code.

Types: Citation; Tags: 2015 National Assessment, 2015 National Assessment, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, All tags... California, Colorado, Connecticut, DataProduct, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Habitat Characterization, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, NFHP Cooperator, NHDPlusV1, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, NoVisual, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Spatial Data, Stream buffers, Tennessee, Texas, USGS Science Data Catalog (SDC), Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, drainage basins, river reaches, streams, Fewer tags