VCRLTER-Northampton County GIS data archive, 1995.

This data archive is a collection of GIS files and FGDC metadata prepared in 1995 for the Northampton County Planning Office by the Virginia Coast Reserve LTER project at the University of Virginia with support from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).  Original data sources include:  1:100,000-scale USGS digital line graph (DLG) hydrography and transportation data;  1:6,000-scale boundary, road, and railroad data for the town of Cape Charles from VDOT;  1:190,000-scale county-wide general soil map data and 1:15,540-scale detailed soil data for the Cape Charles area digitized from printed USDA soil survey maps;   a land use and vegetation cover dataset (30 m. resolution) created by the VCRLTER derived from a 1993 Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite image;   1:20,000-scale plant association maps for 10 seaside barrier and marsh islands between Hog and Smith Islands, inclusive, prepared by Cheryl McCaffrey for TNC in 1975 and published in the Virginia Journal of Science in 1990; and 1993 colonial bird nesting site data collected by The Center for Conservation Biology (with partners The Nature Conservancy, College of William and Mary, University of Virginia, USFWS, VA-DCR, and VA-DGIF). Contents: HYDROGRAPHY Based on USGS 1:100,000 Digital Line Graph (DLG) data.  Files: h100k_arc_u84 (streams, shorelines, etc.) and h100k_poly_u84 (marshes, mudflats, etc.). Note that the hydrographic data has been superseded by the more recent and more detailed USGS National Hydrography Dataset, available for the entire state of Virginia at "ftp://nhdftp.usgs.gov/DataSets/Staged/States/FileGDB/HighResolution/NHDH_VA_931v210.zip" (see http://nhd.usgs.gov/data.html for more information).  A static 2013 version of the NHD data that includes shapefiles extracted from the original ESRI geodatabase format data and covering just the watersheds of the Eastern Shore of VA can also be found in the VCRLTER Data Catalog (dataset VCR14223). TRANSPORTATION Based on USGS 1:100,000 Digital Line Graph (DLG) data for the full county, and 1:6,000 VDOT data for the Cape Charles township. Files:  1:100k Transportation (lines) from USGS DLG data: rtf100k_arc_u84 (roads), rrf100k_arc_u84 (railroads), and mtf100k_arc_u84 (airports and utility transmission lines). Files: 1:6000 street, boundary, and rail line data for the town of Cape Charles, 1984, prepared by Virginia Department of Highways and Transportation Information Services (Division 1221 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219). Streets correct through December 31,1983. Georeferencing corrected in 2014 for shapefiles only, using same methodology described for  VCR14218 dataset.  File : town_u84_adj (town_arc_u84old is the older unadjusted data). Note that the transportation data has been superseded by more recent and more detailed data contained in dataset VCR14222 of the VCRLTER Data Catalog.  The VCR14222 data contains 2013 U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line road and airfield data supplemented by railroad and transmission lines digitized from high resolution VGIN-VBMP 2013 aerial imagery and additionally has boat launch locations not available here. SOILS General soil map for Northampton county (1:190k), and detailed soil map for Cape Charles and Cheriton areas (1:15,540) from published the USDA Soil Conservation Service's  1989 "Soil Survey of Northampton County, Virginia" digitized at UVA by Ray Dukes Smith: soilorig_poly_u84 (uses original shorelines from source maps), soil_poly_u84 (substitutes shorelines from 1993 landcover classification data), and cc_soil_poly_u84 (Cape Charles & Cheriton detailed data, map sheets 13 and 14).  Note that the soil data has been superseded by more recent and more detailed SSURGO soil data from the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), which has seamless soil data from the 1:15,540 map series in tabular and GIS formats for the full county, as well as for all counties in VA and other states.  A static 2013 version of the SSURGO data that contains merged data for Accomack and Northampton Counties can be found in the VCRLTER Data Catalog (dataset VCR14220). LANDUSE/LANDCOVER VCR Landuse and Vegetation Cover, 1993, created by Guofan Shao (VCRLTER) based on 30m resolution Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) satellite imagery taken on July 28, 1993. Cropped to include just Northampton County.   Landcover is divided into 5 classifications: (1) Forest or shrub, (2) Bare Land or Sand, (3) Planted Cropland, Grassland, or Upland Marsh, (4) Open Water, and (5) Low Salt Marsh. File = nhtm93s3_poly_u84.  No spatial adjustments necessary. An outline of the county showing the shorelines based on the above 1993 TM classification is included as the shapefile:outline_poly_u84; however, no spatial adjustment has been applied. Note that a similar landuse/landcover classification based on the same 1993 Landsat TM image and spanning both Accomack and Northampton Counties, VA (plus portions of MD south of Snow Hill and Princess Ann), is also available in the VCRLTER Data Catalog (dataset VCR14221). PLANT ASSOCIATIONS Barrier Island Vegetation Maps (1:20,000) for islands of the Virginia Coast Reserve (TNC) that are within Northampton County, including Wreck Island (VA DCR) but excluding Fishermans Island (US FWS).  By C.A. McCaffrey, based on air photos from 1974 and subsequent ground-truthing.  Individual shapefiles for each major island: hog_u84_adj, cobb_u84_adj, wreck_u84_adj, shipshoal_u84_adj, myrtle_u84_adj, and smith_u84_adj.  Note that in 2014 the georeferencing was fixed, as described in VCRLTER dataset VCR14218, but was only applied to the converted shapefiles, not the original e00 files. Note that the full original dataset, including vegetation maps for Parramore, Cedar, and Metompkin Islands in Accomack County, is available in the VCRLTER Data Catalog (dataset VCR14218). BIRD NESTING SITES Nesting sites for colonial waterbirds in Northampton County, VA, 1993.  File: Birds_pt_u84.  Spatial location generally marks a point in the center or at the edge of the colony.  No spatial adjustments deemed necessary due to the error associated with the location measurement.  Attribute information includes location; species; common name; number of adults, chicks, eggs and nests; land owner; and management area. Plovers and other endangered/threatened species included in the original database are not available in this version, nor are data for nesting sites in other counties or during other years. For more information concerning the original Virginia colonial waterbird survey data (1975-present), please see "http://www.ccbbirds.org/what-we-do/research/species-of-concern/species-of-concern-projects/va-colonial-waterbird-survey/" or contact The Center for Conservation Biology (http://www.ccbbirds.org).  To view more recent bird colony locations, visit their online mapping application at "http://www.ccbbirds.org/maps/".