Geographic Information System Data Base for the Elizabeth River Watershed, Virginia

George E. Harlow Jr., Todd W. Augenstein, Theodore B. Samsel III, and Willet D. Wilson, U.S. Geological Survey


A geographic information system (GIS) data base was created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for the Elizabeth River watershed, which drains to Chesapeake Bay. The effort, which began in May 1995, was done by the USGS in cooperation with the Chesapeake Bay Office of the Department of Environmental Quality. The Elizabeth River watershed lies within the Coastal Plain Physiographic Province. The watershed covers part, or all, of nine 1:24,000-scale topographic maps (with Norfolk South quadrangle at the center). The watershed drains about 250 square miles of heavily industrialized land around Norfolk, including Suffolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach.

The GIS data base includes spatial information on hydrography, transportation, hypsography, well sites, permitted return-flow sites, drainage basins, hydrogeology, and potential hazardous-waste sites listed in an U.S. Environmental Protection Agency historic photographic inventory (years 1937-86). The GIS data base was created for use in environmental studies requiring spatial analysis, display, and management of hydrologic and environmental information; for example, potential hazardous-waste sites can be spatially displayed with respect to specific drainage basins to identify potential contributions of hazardous materials to different river segments.


Harlow, G.E., Jr., Augenstein, T.W., Samsel, T.B., III, and Wilson, W.D., 1996, Geographic information system data base for the Elizabeth River watershed, Virginia [abs.], in Chesapeake Bay Symposium, Richmond, Va.: Virginia Journal of Science 46 (4), p. 264.


Contact: GS-W-VArmd_webmaster@usgs.gov
U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Geological Survey
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