The North Carolina Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources, Division of Environmental Management, in cooperation with the NC Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, developed the digital Water Supply Watersheds data to enhance planning, siting and impact analysis in areas directly affecting water supply intakes. This file outlines the extent of protected and critical areas and stream classifications for areas around water supply watersheds in which development directly affects a water supply intake. This file enables users to identify the areas which have special restrictions for building and development based on water supply intakes. This file is updated as changes occur.

This data was created to assist governmental agencies and others in making resource management decisions through use of a Geographic Information System (GIS).

system filename: wsw Revisions and updates to this layer include:

18.) filename: wsw496 The April 1, 1996 update: A) The Upper Frech Broad River (Asheville) water supply watershed was moved from the proposed coverage to the adopted coverage. B) The Mills River (Asheville) water supply watershed was moved from the proposed coverage to the adopted coverage. C) The French Broad River water supply watershed was moved from the adopted coverage into the proposed coverage. These edits affect Buncombe and Henderson Counties. 17.) filename: wsw396 The March 6, 1996 update: A) The Reedy Fork critical area was changed to 'WS-III NSW' to match the protected area. This affected the Greensboro 100k tile area. B) The Belews Creek protected area was changed to 'WS-IV' to match the critical area. This affected the Winston-Salem 100k tile area. 16.) filename: wsw196 The January 25, 1996 update: A) Protected boundary was altered in the Long Creek (Little Tennessee) watershed. The watershed name was renamed to be Rock Creek (Little Tennessee). This affected the Robbinsville 24k quad. B) Protected boundary was altered in the South Fork Catawba River watershed. This affected the Banoke 24k quad. C) Addition of protected boundary for the Belews Creek watershed. This affected the Belews Creek 24k quad. D) Watersheds were deleted by request of DEM-Tranters Creek which was on the Rocky Mount & Plymouth 100k quads and Stokely Hollow which was on the Asheville 100k quad. E) Extensive changes to the actual boundaries of the watersheds throughout the state in an effort to have them coincident with the Hydrologic Units adopted earlier by EHNR-DEM and USDA-NRCS. Boundaries coincident in both coverages were deleted from the watershed file and copied back from the hydrologic units file. PREVIOUS TO THE 1/25/96 FILE, THIS FILE WAS NAMED: NC.WSW 15.) filname: nc.wsw695 The June 30, 1995 update: A) Protected and critical boundaries were altered in the Hiawassee River watershed. This affected the Mocksville, Peachtree, Marble, and Andrews 24k quads. B) The protected boundary was altered in the South Fork Catawba River watershed in Catawbaw and Lincoln Counties. The Banoak, Reepsville, and Maiden 24k quads were affected. C) The entire WSW area in Bear Creek was deleted in Davie County, affecting the Mocksville and Calahan 24k quads. D) Protected and critical boundaries were altered in the North Toe watershed in Avery and Mitchell counties. This affects the Carvers Gap, Newland, Spruce Pine, and Linville Falls 24k quads. 14.) filename: nc.wsw595 The May 4, 1995 update: an arc was deleted which divided the South Yadkin River-Cooleemee protected area. The change affects the area within the Cool Springs, Cooleemee, Calahan, and Mocksville 24k quads. 13.) filename: nc.wsw195 The January 13, 1995 update: A) A new boundary was added to the Hiawassee River (Murphy) in the Hiawassee River Basin. This addition split the existing watershed, and the western half was deleted. The change affects the Hayesville, Peachtree, and Murphy 24k quads. 12.) filename: nc.wsw1194 The November 4, 1994 update: A) The Smith River WSW, in the Roanoke river basin, had one of its boundaries altered. The change affects the Northeastern Eden 24k quad. 11.) filename: nc.wsw994 The September 13, 1994 update: A) The Lands Creek in the Little Tennessee River Basin in Swain County on the Fontana Lake 100k quad had the PAT attributes added. 10.) filename: nc.wsw894 The August 26, 1994 update consisted of the following watershed adoptions (additions). A) The Deep River in Lee County, in the Cape Fear River Basin. B) The Deep Creek in Swain County, in the Little Tennessee River Basin. C) The Yadkin River in Davie County, in the Yadkin River Basin. D.) The Yadkin River in King County, in the Yadkin River Basin, E) The South Yadkin River in Cooleemee City, in the Yadkin River Basin. 9.) filename: nc.wsw594 The May 18, 1994 update: A) The Tar River WSW within the Tar-Pamlico river basin was deleted. 8.) filename: nc.wsw494 The April 28, 1994 update: A) All proposed areas were removed from the data and are managed separately. Only amended areas are now reflected in this data. 7.) filename: nc.wsw194 The January 12, 1994 update: A) The Campbell Creek watershed in the French Broad river basin had the northern boundary moved. The edits affected the Dellwood 24k quad. B) The South Fork Catawba in the Catawba Watershed had its classification modified from WS-IV CA to WS-IV. C)The South Fork Catawba in the Catawba Watershed had its protected area reduced in size. The change affects the Banoak and Reepsville 24k quads. 6.) filename: nc.wsw102893 The October 28, 1993 update: A) The South Fork Catawba had previously had the protected area deleted. An additional portion of the boundary had been deleted, which was supposed to remain. The boundary was added back into the coverage. The affected maps were the 24k Maiden, Reepsville, Lincolnton West, Hickory, and Banoak, 100k quads were Hickory and Gastonia. 5.) filename: nc.wsw101593 The October 15, 1993 update: A) The northern protected area boundary for Clark Creek was deleted and the east and west critical area buffers were redigitized. Affected maps are the 24k Reepsville and Maiden and the Hickory 100k quad. 4.) filename: The September 8, 1993 update: A) The Little Tennessee River (Fontana Lake) protected area had the southeastern radius line removed, and had a northern ridgeline added. Affected maps are the 24k Fontana Dam and Tuskeegee quads, and the Fontana Lake 100k quad. 3.) filename: wsw193 The January 22, 1993 update: A) Cold Water Creek (Lake Fisher) in the Yadkin River Basin was changed from WS-III to WS-IV. 2.) filename: The November 17, 1992 update: A) Stokely Hollow, 100k Asheboro quad changed from WS-I to WS-II. B) Corrected location of Reddies River intake for the Yadkin river basin, Wilkesboro 24k, Boone 100k. C) Changed location of watershed boundary, intake, and critical area for the South Fork New River, New River Basin, Jefferson 24k, West Jefferson 24k Boone 100k. 1.) filename: nc.pcarv.old (protected/critical area with the same state lake as the .coe coverage, but this version was interpreted from USGS maps) filename: nc.pcarv.coe (protected/critical area with the Army Corp of Engineers version of a state lake) filename: nc.pcarv Previous to August 1992, this file was called Public Water Supply watersheds and only included WS-I, WS-II, WS-III classifications. filename: nc.pca filename: nc.pca2

North Carolina Effective Flood zones: In 2000, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) designated North Carolina a Cooperating Technical Partner State, formalizing an agreement between FEMA and the State to modernize flood maps. This partnership resulted in creation of the North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program (NCFMP). As a CTS, the State assumed primary ownership and responsibility of the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) for all North Carolina communities as part of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). This project includes conducting flood hazard analyses and producing updated, Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps (DFIRMs). Floodplain management is a process that aims to achieve reduced losses due to flooding. It takes on many forms, but is realized through a series of federal, state, and local programs and regulations, in concert with industry practice, to identify flood risk, implement methods to protect man-made development from flooding, and protect the natural and beneficial functions of floodplains. FIRMs are the primary tool for state and local governments to mitigate areas of flooding. Individual county databases can be downloaded from https://fris.nc.gov Updated Jan 17th, 2025.

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To view the latest imagery for any location in the state, customers should always use the "Orthoimagery_Latest" image service which can be found at https://nconemap.gov. To view the latest imagery that is suitable for raster analysis, customers should use the "Orthoimagery_Latest_Analysis" image service which can be found at https://nconemap.gov.

To find specific dates the images were captured use the imagery dates app or download the data.





Metadata:



  Summary metadata for orthoimagery mosaics
  Summary metadata for orthoimagery tilesContractor-specific metadata for Chatham, Durham, Granville, Lee, Orange, Person, and Wake countiesContractor-specific metadata for Edgecombe, Franklin, Halifax, Nash, Northampton, Vance, and Warren countiesContractor-specific metadata for Cumberland, Harnett, Hoke, Moore, Richmond, Robeson, and Scotland countiesContractor-specific metadata for Bladen, Johnston, Sampson, Wayne, and Wilson counties