1:24k 10, 30 and 90-meter Riparian Buffer Zones

<p><b>Open the Data Resource:</b> <a href='https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/648236c1d34eac007b581262' rel='nofollow ugc'>https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/648236c1d34eac007b581262</a></p> <p>These riparian buffer area datasets were produced to support numerous conservation and restoration efforts in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, including assessing watershed health and vulnerability, targeting the implementation of riparian forest buffers, understanding the current status of riparian forest buffers, providing metrics on riparian land use/land cover and assessing land conversion within riparian zones. The layers are binary, where the value of each cell represents the presence or absence of the buffer zone. In addition, the data resource contains shapefile layers that document the extent of corrections that were made to the data to address errors in the stream network.</p> <p>The methodology combines various fine-scale input layers, including a 1:24k stream network and Chesapeake Bay 1-meter resolution Land Use/Land Cover to approximate banks of stream channels and waterbodies to better define the riparian zone (CBP, 2023; Hopkins and others, 2020). For shorelines and large rivers, the width of the buffer zone (10, 30, 90 meters) begins at the banks, where land meets water. For finer scale (1:24k) stream features, the buffer zone includes both water and riparian land area, where the buffered width begins at the estimated top of bank.</p> <p>These data are intended to be used in conjunction with 1-meter resolution Land Use/Land Cover data to accomplish this research and to identify new research that is made possible by the availability of fine-scale data.</p>