SDAM Desktop Reconnaissance

This page includes links to materials that support desktop reconnaissance for the Regional SDAMs. See the Regional SDAM User Manuals for additional information and instructions about conducting desktop reconnaissance. For more information, please visit the pages About Regional SDAMs.

Conducting a desktop reconnaissance before an assessment helps ensure a successful assessment of a stream. During desktop reconnaissance, assessors evaluate reach accessibility and set expectations for conditions that may affect field sampling. In addition, assessors can begin to compile additional data that may inform determination of streamflow duration such as location of nearby stream gages. 

Disclaimer: Mention of or referral to commercial products or services, and/or links to non-EPA sites does not imply official EPA endorsement of or responsibility for the opinions, ideas, data, or products presented at those locations, or guarantee the validity of the information provided. Mention of commercial products/services on non-EPA websites is provided solely as a pointer to information that may be useful to EPA staff and the public. 

On this page:

• Drainage Area
• Climate
• Hydrology
• Geography
• Biology
• Miscellaneous

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Drainage Area*

• USGS StreamStats - provides access to spatial analytical tools that are useful for water-resources planning and management, and for engineering and design purposes. Available information varies from state to state.
• The National Map from USGS has Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) that can be downloaded based on a specified map extent. They are available at approximately 10-meter, 30-meter, and even 1-meter and 3-meter resolution depending on the area. 

* The NE & SE SDAM manual references these two tools to calculate drainage area.

Climate 

• Antecedent Precipitation Tool is a desktop tool developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). The APT is commonly used by the Corps and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“the agencies”) to support decisions as to whether field data collection and other site-specific observations occurred under normal climatic conditions. It can be accessed from the Corps’ APT GitHub repository.
• PRISM (Parameter-elevation Regression on Independent Slopes Model) Climate Group combines point weather data (daily and monthly) with a digital elevation model to produce gridded datasets of precipitation and temperature for the conterminous United States. This dataset is used to derive the 30-year average monthly precipitation for May, June, and July metric used in the final Southeast SDAM.

 
Hydrology 

• StreamCat currently contains over 600 metrics that include local catchment (Cat), watershed (Ws), and other special metrics. The special metrics were derived through modeling or by combining other StreamCat metrics. These variables include predicted water temperature, predicted biological condition, and the indexes of catchment and watershed integrity. These metrics are available for ~2.65 million stream segments and their associated catchments across the conterminous US. StreamCat metrics represent both natural (e.g., soils and geology) and anthropogenic (e.g, urban areas and agriculture) landscape information.
• EPA’s WATERS GeoViewer is an EPA GeoPlatform based web mapping application that provides access to a number of water-relevant static or dynamic mapping and numeric datasets and reports. 
• USGS National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) represents the water drainage network of the United States with features such as rivers, streams, canals, lakes, ponds, coastline, dams, and streamgages. Note – As of October 1, 2023, the NHD was retired. NHD data will continue to be available, but are no longer maintained. The most current data are available through the 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP).
• USGS 3D Hydrography Program (3DHP) – is USGS’ first systematic remapping of the Nation’s hydrography since the original USGS 1:24,000-scale topographic mapping program was active.
• USGS WaterWatch displays maps, graphs, and tables describing real-time, recent, and past streamflow conditions for the United States. 

Geography

• Google Earth is a program that allows users to explore the world through a 3D representation of Earth using satellite imagery, aerial photography, and GIS data, offering features like 360° Street View, map creation, and guided tours.
• Digital Globe  provides high-resolution Earth imagery, data, and analysis, offering geospatial information for various commercial applications.
• USGS Earth Explorer  - An online search, discovery, and ordering tool of satellite, aircraft, and other remote sensing inventories through interactive and textual-based query capabilities.

Biology

• National Wetlands Plant List (NWPL) (and the information implied by its wetland plant species status ratings) is used extensively in wetland delineation, wetland restoration and research, and the development of compensatory mitigation goals, as well as in providing general botanical information about wetland plants.
• iNaturalist provides a place to record and organize nature findings, meet other nature enthusiasts, and learn about the natural world. iNaturalist uses machine learning, image recognition technology and crowdsourcing to provide users with predicted taxonomic identifications.
• Plant.id accurately identify more than 35,000 taxa of plants, mushrooms and lichen from around the world. We give you the common name, a short description and the classification of your plant in addition to the scientific (Latin) name.
• Insect.id can recognize over 14 000 classes including beetles, spiders, centipedes, butterflies, ants, bees and other insect-like animals. Besides Latin names, Insect.id provides localized common names, description, URL, representative images, taxonomy and other useful information.
• PlantNet is a citizen science project available as an app that helps you identify plants thanks to your pictures.
• Macroinvertebrates.org is an online reference for identification of aquatic insects of North America.
• USFWS Wetland Mapper provides easy-to-use, map-like views of the nation’s wetland and deepwater resources and allows users to view, query, download and print wetlands data.   
• USFWS Environmental Conservation Online System (ECOS) serves a variety of reports related to FWS Threatened and Endangered Species.
• EcoAtlas informs effective wetland management by providing public access to information about the quantity and quality of California streams and wetlands.

Miscellaneous

• Shoreline Cleanup Assessment Technique (SCAT) is a tool used by the EPA and other agencies to assess and document the extent and degree of shoreline oiling following an oil spill, guiding cleanup efforts and determining when they can be terminated.