Description: BAARI (Bay Area Aquatic Resource Inventory) was established to meet regional needs for wetlands and stream monitoring. One primary objective was to apply standardized monitoring tools to ensure data comparability and consistent, documented quality. These data help agencies and organizations assess the extent and condition of wetlands in local watersheds and identify and prioritize opportunities for ecological restoration and enhancement in a watershed context.BackgroundBAARI data is part of the Wetland and Riparian Area Monitoring Plan (WRAMP), which consists of a 1-2-3 level monitoring framework. This allows assessment of wetlands at two scales: landscape and highly localized. BAARI is Level 1 of this framework, developed for landscape level analyses of wetland extent, distribution and abundance. Geographic information systems (GIS) and remote sensing are used to map and create inventories of existing wetlands (both modern and historical). These inventories quantify the extent of wetland habitats and projects, and are used for landscape profiles of wetlands at the state, regional, watershed, and local scales. Level 2 entails rapid field assessment of wetland health or ecological condition. In California the California Rapid Assessment Method (CRAM) is a diagnostic tool that two or more trained practitioners can use to assess the condition of a wetland or riparian site in one half day or less using visual indicators in the field. Level 3 monitoring entails intensive sampling of ecological function or specific aspects of wetland condition. These assessments are intensive quantitative measurements of condition, stress, or cause-and-effect relationships. A Level 3 assessment is an in-depth study of a particular attribute of wetland health such as water quality, fish habitat, bird populations, vegetative cover and diversity, or physical processes. Level 3 monitoring can describe the performance of specific ecological functions at the site scale. Information on the WRAMP is available at http://www.mywaterquality.ca.gov/eco_health/wetlands/condition/wramp_toolkit.shtmlMore information on BAARI can be found online at: http://www.sfei.org/BAARI. Description of Updates in Version 2Local experts provided advice on and reviewed BAARI’s stream, wetland and riparian GIS layers in specific locations to help update the data as conditions in the field changed and/or to increase its accuracy and detail. Improving the accuracy and detail of BAARI improves the base maps for all monitoring and assessment efforts to understand the distribution, amount and ecological condition of Bay Area aquatic resources. The following updates were made to BAARI under this project:The Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) provided their GIS based stream data for the Guadalupe River Watershed. SFEI’s GIS team incorporated parts of the SCVWD dataset into BAARI to improve the accuracy and detail of the BAARI stream layer with the Guadalupe River watershed. Updates included features such as underground connectors between the upper and lower watershed reaches, and enhanced details of portions of the upper watershed. Watershed Sciences developed six hand-drawn maps showing field verified ditch locations circa 2006. Those data were used in developing the sediment TMDL for the watershed. Watershed sciences provided those maps to SFEI’s GIS team and worked with them to compare the remotely sensed stream and ditch locations in the BAARI data set (based on 2009 NAIP imagery) to her maps and other data (including Google Earth using multiple image dates). Based on this careful comparative process, about 500 linear updates were made to the BAARI stream layer for the Sonoma Creek watershed with the data source attributed to Laurel Collins’ maps. SFEI staff added stream names for the whole BAARI dataset (Bay Area 9 counties, ocean shoreline, and Tomales Bay - 530 different names applied to more than 24000 stream segments).Additional corrections to wetland and stream presence, extent, and classification were appended to the dataset by SFEI staff where inaccuracies were identified based on local expertise of wetlands in the Bay Area.All BAARI updates were reviewed by a second GIS staff member to ensure that they were acceptable and followed BAARI mapping protocols. Description of Attribute Fields in BAARIBaylandsRestProj: restoration project associated with this wetland. This field has not been updated in version 2. Refer to http://www.EcoAtlas.org for current listings of ecological restoration projects. Source_Dat: source(s) from which the wetland polygon was digitized, or otherwise incorporated into BAARIWetlandTyp: Coded classification of the wetland type. Codes are defined on p5-6 of "BAARI Mapping Standards" Organization: organization that digitized the wetland polygonClickCode: simplification of the 'WetlandTyp' attribute used for map database queries in web mapping applications such as http://www.EcoAtlas.org. Refers to the standardized wetland classification system employed by the California Aquatic Resources Inventory (CARI). More information about CARI is available at http://www.sfei.org/it/gis/cari ClickLabel: verbal description of the ClickCode codeLegCode: further simplification of the 'WetlandTyp' attribute used in the legends of web mapping applications such as http://www.EcoAtlas.orgLegLabel: verbal description of the LegCode codeORIG_FID: unusedOpenWater: Open Water (1) or a wetland (0)TidRip: unusedGlobalID: Unique identifier, if one exists StreamsWetlandTyp: Coded classification of the stream type. Codes are defined on p9-10 of "BAARI Mapping Standards" Bayland: Identifies whether the feature falls within the historical extent of the Baylands (1) or not (0)Strahler: Strahler stream order of the stream segment.ClickCode: simplification of the 'WetlandTyp' attribute used for map database queries in web mapping applications such as http://www.EcoAtlas.orgClickLabel: verbal description of the ClickCode codeLegCode: further simplification of the 'WetlandTyp' attribute used in the legends of web mapping applications such as http://www.EcoAtlas.orgLegLabel: verbal description of the LegCode codeGlobalID: Unique identifier, if one exists (e.g. ReachCode attribute in NHD)IDNum: Numerical version of GlobalIDStreamName: the recognized Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) name of the streamSource_Dat: source(s) from which the segment was digitized, or otherwise incorporated into BAARI.Name_Source: source from which 'StreamName' was identifiedFNode: "From Node" used to determine stream flow directionTNode: "To Node" used to determine stream flow directionLegHeader: legend header used in the legends of web mapping applications such as http://www.EcoAtlas.orgTMDL_DATA: "Yes" value indicates TMDL data is available for this stream segment. Contact SFEI for information about integrating TMDL data with BAARIWetlands (Non-tidal)WetlandTyp: Coded classification of the wetland type. Codes are defined on p6-9 of "BAARI Mapping Standards" SourceData: source(s) from which the wetland polygon was digitized, or otherwise incorporated into BAARIOrganization: organization that digitized the wetland polygonClickCode: simplification of the 'WetlandTyp' attribute used for map database queries in web mapping applications such as http://www.EcoAtlas.orgClickLabel: verbal description of the ClickCode codeLegCode: further simplification of the 'WetlandTyp' attribute used in the legends of web mapping applications such as http://www.EcoAtlas.orgLegLabel: verbal description of the LegCode codeGlobalID: Unique identifier, if one exists