Shoreland Mapping in SE Minnesota

 

CRWP and the Whitewater River Watershed Project to carry out the Shoreland Mapping Project. The project focused on using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) with aerial photos to digitally map the different land uses within SE Minnesota’s public water’s shoreland. The project started in 2008 and finished in 2010. The data is available to counties and the public to assist them in land use decisions that affect our surface water quality.

Project Downloads

Project Final Presentation

Statistics

  • 300ft. Shoreland Area Land Use Statistics*
  • 50ft. Shoreland Area Land Use Statistics*

*Please note, these statistics are computed from the stream centerline. These statistics do not take into account that on some rivers, streams, or drainage ditches, the shoreland area may be measured from another boundary such as the ordinary high water level, bank edge, etc. and not from the stream centerline. Measuring shoreland area from a different boundary will change land use percentages. These numbers are presented as an estimate only.

Land Use Code Key

 

GIS Downloads

This data is provided free of charge under the Shoreland Mapping Program. Data is produced by the Cannon River Watershed Partnership (CRWP) as contracted by the Whitewater Joint Powers Board and funded by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.

Data was digitized from 2008 FSA NAIP one-meter aerial photography and coded using a subset of the Minnesota Land Cover Classification System. While every effort was made to ensure the data correctly reflects land use, CRWP cannot guarantee 100% accuracy. Data is meant to reflect very basic land use information (eg. forest, grassland, cropland, etc.) within 300 (or 50) feet of DNR-protected river and stream centerlines for a given county. Data has not been verified in the field. Cannon River Watershed Partnership assumes no responsibility for how data is used or its end products.

You need a geographic information systems (GIS) program to view these data. If you do not have a GIS program, you can download ArcReader, a free GIS data viewer, from ESRI.

All shoreland data has a NAD1983 projection with complete metadata (stream trace data has no included metadata). You can download county shoreland data in a zip file format for the 300 foot or the 50 foot shoreland area (Note: the 50 foot shoreland data is generated from the 300 foot shoreland data.) You may also download re-traced stream centerlines digitized from FSA NAIP 2008 aerial photos and/or LiDAR data.