Alaska waterbodies' fetch distance and elevation, 2015

This geospatial dataset is based on the National Hydrographic Dataset (NHD) Model (v2.2) for Alaska published on May 27 2014. For each waterbody, we established a unique ID and calculated fetch distance in meters (m) using the lakemorpho package in R. Fetch is the maximum distance or the longest open water distance across a body of water. We used 200 points along the waterbody shore to determine the fetch. The dataset also contains information on the elevation of each waterbody. A 60m digital elevation model (DEM) was used to calculate the maximum elevation point within the water body using zonal statistics in ArcMap 10.7.
This dataset was used to form a risk domain for potential introductions of aquatic invasive species via floatplanes. A survey with floatplane pilots was used to identify waterbodies certain aircraft types on floats can access. One of the determining factors for access is fetch, the largest distance between two points on the perimeter of a waterbody. Here, we used the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) to calculate the fetch distance for each waterbody identified in the NHD.