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Why are PEARL data divided into two broad groupings: “Lakes & Streams” and “Wetlands, Estuaries, Coastal & Terrestrial”?

April 26, 2017broad coastal Data divided estuaries groupings pearl

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Why are PEARL data divided into two broad groupings: “Lakes & Streams” and “Wetlands, Estuaries, Coastal & Terrestrial”?

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The reason for this system of grouping data tables relates to the way in which PEARL data are spatially referenced. Lakes and streams data are referenced to individual waterbodies. All lakes data are identified by the MIDAS lake code (Moosehead Lake, for example, is 0390) – a system that was established by DEP and IF&W many years ago. Streams data are geo-referenced to individual stream segments using codes derived from the National Hydrographic Dataset (NHD: http://nhd.usgs.gov/). Internal lookup tables in the PEARL system link each MIDAS lake code or NHD stream segment to their landscape context: watershed (the series of nested hydrologic units developed by USGS: HUC-8, HUC-10 and HUC-12), town and county. These linkages allow PEARL users to search for data by watershed or by town/county, in addition to waterbody name or code. In contrast to lakes and streams data, all other data types in PEARL are spatially referenced only by unique combinations of town and watershed (HUC-12). This