NYRWA Columbia County Wells: Water well data for selected towns in Columbia County, New York. Data exists for the following towns: Ancram, Austerlitz, Chatham, Claverack, Copake, Germantown, Ghent, Hillsdale, Stuyvesant, and Taghkanic.

Town and city boundaries in Columbia County, NY, derived from tax parcel data provided by Columbia County Real Property Tax Service. This dataset more accurately depicts the municipal boundaries than the NYS Civil Boundaries data set maintained by the NYS GIS Program Office. The most recent update is based on the 2021 tax parcels.

Updated building footprint data for Columbia County NY.The New York State building footprints service contains building footprints with address information. The footprints have address point information folded in from the Streets and Address Matching (SAM - https://gis.ny.gov/streets/) address point file. The building footprints have a field called “Address Range”, this field shows (where available) either a single address or an address range, depending on the address points that fall within the footprint. Ex: 3860 Atlantic Avenue or Ex: 32 - 34 Wheatfield Circle.Building footprints in New York State are from four different sources: Microsoft, Open Data, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and Geospatial Services. The majority of the footprints are from NYSERDA, except in NYC where the primary source was Open Data. Microsoft footprints were added where the other 2 sources were missing polygons.Field Descriptions:NYSGeo Source: tells the end user if the source is NYSERDA, Microsoft, NYC Open Data, and could expand from here in the future.Address Point Count: the number of address points that fall within that building footprint.Address Range : If an address point falls within a footprint it lists the range of those address points. Ex: if a building is on a corner of South Pearl and Beaver Street, 40 points fall on the building, and 35 are South Pearl Street it would give the range of addresses for South Pearl. We also removed sub addresses from this range, primarily apartment related. For example, in above example, it would not list 30 South Pearl, Apartment 5A, it would list 30 South Pearl.Most Common Street: the street name of the largest number of address points. In the above example, it would list “South Pearl” as the most common street since the majority of address points list it as the street.Other Streets: the list of other streets that fall within the building footprint, if any. In the above example, “Beaver Street” would be listed since address points for Beaver Street fall on the footprint but are not in the majority.County Name: County name populated from CIESINs. If not populated from CIESINs, identified by the GS.Municipality Name: Municipality name populated from CIESINs. If not populated from CIESINs, identified by the GS.Source: Source where the data came from. If NYSGeo Source = NYSERDA, the data would typically list orthoimagery, LIDAR, county data, etc.Source ID: if NYSGeo Source = NYSERDA, Source ID would typically list an orthoimage or LIDAR tile.Source Date: Date the footprint was created. If the source image was from 2016 orthoimagery, 2016 would be the Source Date.Description of each footprint source: NYSERDA Building footprints that were created as part of the New York State Flood Impact Decision Support Systems https://fidss.ciesin.columbia.edu/home Footprints vary in age from county to county. Microsoft Building Footprints released 6/28/2018 - vintage unknown/varies.More info on this dataset can be found at https://blogs.bing.com/maps/2018-06/microsoft-releases-125-million-building-footprints-in-the-us-as-open-data.NYC Open Data - Building Footprints of New York City as a polygon feature class. Last updated 7/30/2018, downloaded on 8/6/2018.Feature Class of footprint outlines of buildings in New York City.Please see the following link for additional documentation- https://github.com/CityOfNewYork/nyc-geo-metadata/blob/master/Metadata/Metadata_BuildingFootprints.md

Natural Community Important Areas (IA) for NY Natural Heritage Program Element Occurences in the Hudson River Valley: Important Areas are lands and waters that support the continued presence and quality of known populations of rare animals and rare plants, or of documented examples of rare or high-quality ecological communities. Important Areas include the specific locations where the animals, plants, and/or ecological communities have been observed, but go beyond these to also include additional habitat for the rare animal and plant populations, including areas which may be used by rare animals for breeding, nesting, feeding, roosting, or over-wintering; and to include areas that support the natural ecological processes critical to maintaining the habitats of these rare animal and plant populations, or critical to maintaining these significant communities. IAs are generated using GIS Important Area spatial models (IA models) applied to occurrences of rare plants and animals and significant natural communities in the New York Natural Heritage database, or applied to observation locations of other species obtained from other sources. IA models are specific to a species or species group, and are based on the life histories and habitats of that species or species group; for communities, models are based on the community type’s size and natural ecological processes.

NYS Building Footprints - metadata info:The New York State building footprints service contains building footprints with address information. The footprints have address point information folded in from the Streets and Address Matching (SAM - https://gis.ny.gov/streets/) address point file. The building footprints have a field called “Address Range”, this field shows (where available) either a single address or an address range, depending on the address points that fall within the footprint. Ex: 3860 Atlantic Avenue or Ex: 32 - 34 Wheatfield Circle Building footprints in New York State are from four different sources: Microsoft, Open Data, New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and Geospatial Services. The majority of the footprints are from NYSERDA, except in NYC where the primary source was Open Data. Microsoft footprints were added where the other 2 sources were missing polygons. Field Descriptions: NYSGeo Source : tells the end user if the source is NYSERDA, Microsoft, NYC Open Data, and could expand from here in the futureAddress Point Count: the number of address points that fall within that building footprintAddress Range : If an address point falls within a footprint it lists the range of those address points. Ex: if a building is on a corner of South Pearl and Beaver Street, 40 points fall on the building, and 35 are South Pearl Street it would give the range of addresses for South Pearl. We also removed sub addresses from this range, primarily apartment related. For example, in above example, it would not list 30 South Pearl, Apartment 5A, it would list 30 South Pearl.Most Common Street : the street name of the largest number of address points. In the above example, it would list “South Pearl” as the most common street since the majority of address points list it as the street. Other Streets: the list of other streets that fall within the building footprint, if any. In the above example, “Beaver Street” would be listed since address points for Beaver Street fall on the footprint but are not in the majority.County Name : County name populated from CIESINs. If not populated from CIESINs, identified by the GSMunicipality Name : Municipality name populated from CIESINs. If not populated from CIESINs, identified by the GSSource: Source where the data came from. If NYSGeo Source = NYSERDA, the data would typically list orthoimagery, LIDAR, county data, etc.Source ID: if NYSGeo Source = NYSERDA, Source ID would typically list an orthoimage or LIDAR tileSource Date: Date the footprint was created. If the source image was from 2016 orthoimagery, 2016 would be the Source Date. Description of each footprint source:NYSERDA Building footprints that were created as part of the New York State Flood Impact Decision Support Systems https://fidss.ciesin.columbia.edu/home Footprints vary in age from county to county.Microsoft Building Footprints released 6/28/2018 - vintage unknown/varies. More info on this dataset can be found at https://blogs.bing.com/maps/2018-06/microsoft-releases-125-million-building-footprints-in-the-us-as-open-data.NYC Open Data - Building Footprints of New York City as a polygon feature class. Last updated 7/30/2018, downloaded on 8/6/2018. Feature Class of footprint outlines of buildings in New York City. Please see the following link for additional documentation- https://github.com/CityOfNewYork/nyc-geo-metadata/blob/master/Metadata/Metadata_BuildingFootprints.mdSpatial Reference of Source Data: UTM Zone 18, meters, NAD 83. Spatial Reference of Web Service: Spatial Reference of Web Service: WGS 1984 Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere.

Coldwater Stream Habitat Important Areas (IA) for the Hudson River Valley: Important Areas are lands and waters that support the continued presence and quality of known populations of rare or target animals and rare plants, or of documented examples of rare or high-quality ecological communities. Important Areas include the specific locations where the animals, plants, and/or ecological communities have been observed, but go beyond these to also include additional habitat for the rare animal and plant populations, including areas which may be used by rare animals for breeding, nesting, feeding, roosting, or over-wintering; and to include areas that support the natural ecological processes critical to maintaining the habitats of these rare animal and plant populations, or critical to maintaining these significant communities. IAs are generated using GIS Important Area spatial models (IA models) applied to occurrences of rare plants and animals and significant natural communities in the New York Natural Heritage database, or applied to observation locations of other species obtained from other sources. IA models are specific to a species or species group, and are based on the life histories and habitats of that species or species group; for communities, models are based on the community type’s size and natural ecological processes. Wild brook trout are defined as populations of brook trout that are reproducing and persisting on their own in the wild.

NYRWA Unconsolidated Aquifers: Unconsolidated aquifers of selected towns in Columbia County, NY. This data set is of unconsolidated aquifers mapped by the New York Rural Water Association and found in the following towns: Ancram, Austerlitz, Chatham, Claverack, Copake, Germantown, Ghent, Hillsdale, Stuyvesant, and Taghkanic.

NYRWA Surficial Geologic Materials: Surficial geologic materials of selected towns in Columbia County, New York. This data set is of surficial geologic materials mapped by the New York Rural Water Association and found in the following towns: Ancram, Austerlitz, Chatham, Claverack, Copake, Germantown, Ghent, Hillsdale, Stuyvesant, and Taghkanic.

Columbia County Boundary derived from tax parcel data provided by Columbia County Real Property Tax Service. This dataset more accurately depicts the county boundary than the NYS Civil Boundaries data set maintained by the NYS GIS Program Office. The most recent update is based on the 2021 tax parcels.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) Hudson River Estuary Program worked with the New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Cornell University and the NY Natural Heritage Program to develop Significant Biodiversity Areas (SBAs) for the Hudson River estuary region of New York State. SBAs are landscape areas with a high concentration of biological diversity or value for regional biodiversity. As a set, the 22 areas account for much of the range in biodiversity found in the region, but should not be interpreted as the only important areas within the region. The SBAs were first described and published in Penhollow et al. (2006) (available online: http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/5096.html). SBAs are defined by unique topography, geology, hydrology, and biology that distinguish them from neighboring areas. Biologists analyzed existing data provided by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS 1997), New York Natural Heritage Program (Finton et al. 1999, Finton et al. 2000, Howard et al. 2002), the National Audubon Society (Wells 1998), and the New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit (Smith et al. 2001) to determine the general locations of significant ecological features. The areas were then further inventoried and the boundaries refined following two years of field survey by the NY Natural Heritage Program (Howard et al. 2002).

Village boundaries in Columbia County, NY, derived from tax parcel data. More accurate than the county boundary included in the NYS Civil Boundaries data set maintained by the NYS GIS Program Office. The most recent update is based on the 2021 tax parcels.

Orthoimagery from Spring 2021. The service provides a Natural Color view at approximately 12 inch resolution. The source orthoimagery is 4-band at resolutions of 12 or 6 inches. For more information see http://gis.ny.gov/gateway/mg/index.html

The NYS Hillshade was created by the New York State GIS Program Office (NYSGPO) and is generated using all available Bare Earth DEMs with the Statewide USGS 10 Meter DEM to fill in gaps where higher resolution models currently do not exist. The 10 Meter hillshade is visible at all levels and high resolution hillshades turn on under 1:500,000. Metadata for the NYS data can be found by individual project here: http://gis.ny.gov/elevation/metadata.htm

This data set provides the water quality classifications of New York State's lakes, rivers, streams and ponds, collectively referred to as water bodies. All water bodies in the state are provided a water quality classification based on existing, or expected best usage, of each water body or water body segment. Under New York State's Environmental Conservation Law (ECL), Title 5 of Article 15, certain waters of the state are protected on the basis of their classification. Streams and small water bodies located in the course of a stream that are designated as C (T) or higher (i.e., C (TS), B, or A) are collectively referred to as "protected streams."

Orthoimagery from Spring 2001. Includes natural color, color infrared and panchromatic orthoimagery.

Priority agricultural lands from a Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) process adapted for Columbia County by the County Agricultural and Farmland Protection Board (AFPB)and mapped by Don Meltz Planning and GIS. The original LESA process was created by Natural Resources Conservation Service. Assessment criteria include soil type, commitment to farming, long-term viability, development pressure, and open space (including scenic, historic, and natural resource) value.As a component of the 2013 Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan (AFPP), the AFPB developed a working LESA model that can be used by the County in conjunction with local decision-making boards to identify agricultural lands eligible for one or more conservation tools, strategies or resources. Many of the county's municipalities, through the comprehensive planning process, have already designating areas suitable for growth and for conservation, as well as for agriculture. The LESA system can help the County and municipalities work together to prioritize those lands and protect from conversion, especially where resources and benefits are limited.The LESA Map can serve several purposes. For example, farmland preservation projects seeking State funding (if and when funding becomes available) can use the map for justification purposes and potential additional “scoring” points if the project is identified on the map. Columbia County municipalities are encouraged to use the data in their land use planning activities such as Comprehensive Plan updates, zoning changes, and their own farmland protection plans.As the County proceeds to implement the Plan, the LESA model should be tested with respect to the programs or tools with which it will be used. The criteria and scoring system can then be modified if necessary. Score thresholds that define the final ranges and priority levels need to be determined in order to interpret the raw LESA score and apply it in decision-making about eligibility for programs or benefits.See the Columbia County AFPP, chapter 4 and appendix F for more information on this dataset, how it was developed and its usefulness for planing purposes.

Flowing surface water features within Columbia County and surrounding watersheds, extracted from the USGS National Hydrography Dataset (NHDFlowline feature class). The purpose of this layer is to make it easy to show and symbolize surface water features in a map. This data was downloaded and processed on 9-26-2018. There may be newer data available from the original source. Refer to the links below.The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) is a feature-based database that interconnects and uniquely identifies the stream segments or reaches that make up the nation's surface water drainage system.More information about the NHD can be found on the USGS National Hydrography website.The original datasets can be downloaded from the NHD website.

This data set is a digital soil survey and generally is the most detailed level of soil geographic data developed by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. The information was prepared by digitizing maps, by compiling information onto a planimetric correct base and digitizing, or by revising digitized maps using remotely sensed and other information. This data set consists of georeferenced digital map data and computerized attribute data. The map data are in a soil survey area extent format and include a detailed, field verified inventory of soils and miscellaneous areas that normally occur in a repeatable pattern on the landscape and that can be cartographically shown at the scale mapped. A special soil features layer (point and line features) is optional. This layer displays the location of features too small to delineate at the mapping scale, but they are large enough and contrasting enough to significantly influence use and management. The soil map units are linked to attributes in the National Soil Information System relational database, which gives the proportionate extent of the component soils and their properties.The Columbia County Planning Department has included a limited number of attributes with this dataset in order to make a more manageable layer.

Surface water features within Columbia County and surrounding watersheds, extracted from the USGS National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). The NHD 'Waterbody' and NHD 'Area' feature classes are combined here, to make a single layer containing lakes, ponds, estuaries, rivers, and larger streams. The purpose of this layer is to make it easy to show and symbolize these larger surface water features in a map using a single layer, rather than having to add two feature classes in order to depict them all. This data was downloaded and processed on 9-26-2018. There may be newer data available from the original source. Refer to the links below.The National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) is a feature-based database that interconnects and uniquely identifies the stream segments or reaches that make up the nation's surface water drainage system.More information about the NHD can be found on the USGS National Hydrography website.The original datasets can be downloaded from the NHD website.

The Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD) is a comprehensive aggregated collection of hydrologic unit data consistent with the national criteria for delineation and resolution. It defines the areal extent of surface water drainage to a point except in coastal or lake front areas where there could be multiple outlets as stated by the "Federal Standards and Procedures for the National Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD)" “Standard” (http://pubs.usgs.gov/tm/11/a3/). Watershed boundaries are determined solely upon science-based hydrologic principles, not favoring any administrative boundaries or special projects, nor particular program or agency. This dataset represents the hydrologic unit boundaries to the 12-digit (6th level) for the entire United States. Some areas may also include additional subdivisions representing the 14- and 16-digit hydrologic unit (HU). At a minimum, the HUs are delineated at 1:24,000-scale in the conterminous United States, 1:25,000-scale in Hawaii, Pacific basin and the Caribbean, and 1:63,360-scale in Alaska, meeting the National Map Accuracy Standards (NMAS). Higher resolution boundaries are being developed where partners and data exist and will be incorporated back into the WBD. WBD data are delivered as a dataset of polygons and corresponding lines that define the boundary of the polygon. WBD polygon attributes include hydrologic unit codes (HUC), size (in the form of acres and square kilometers), name, downstream hydrologic unit code, type of watershed, non-contributing areas, and flow modifications. The HUC describes where the unit is in the country and the level of the unit. WBD line attributes contain the highest level of hydrologic unit for each boundary, line source information and flow modifications.