Building the wetlands layer of NSDI Bill Wilenadishman222006-08-01T14:29:00Z2006-08-01T14:29:00Z12891653FWS133193911.8026Building the wetlands layer of NSDIThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the lead federal agency responsible for building the wetlands layer of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). As such, the Service continues to modernize the National Wetlands Inventory Program to achieve operational efficiencies and enhance service to customers over the Internet. In partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, the National Wetlands Inventory implemented a national wetlands geodatabase to manage and provide via the internet all available digital wetlands data in seamless format for the conterminous United States, Alaska and Hawaii (shown below). This provides resource managers and the public with contemporary digital wetland information that can be used in geographic information systems, as well as in key assessment reports to address complex conservation issues with our partners.The wetlands layer of the NSDI currently has wetlands geospatial digital data for over 1.9 billion acres of the United States, 49 percent of the total area of the nation. These data were developed in partnership with almost 100 organizations. These data are made available over the Internet in a new seamless master geodatabase through the Service’s Wetlands Mapper http://wetlandsfws.er.usgs.gov/index.html and through the National Map http://nationalmap.gov/. The Inventory wetland maps are also part of the E-government’s geospatial one-stop, geodata.gov http://gos2.geodata.gov/wps/portal/gos. In addition to digital wetlands data, the Service also has available hardcopy maps for 90% of the nation. These maps can be ordered from cooperator-run distribution centers located through http://wetlands.fws.gov/distribution_ctrs.htm.