Massachusetts water features, including lakes, ponds, rivers, streams and wetlands. From USGS hydrography. For full metadata and links to download free data please visit https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massgis-data-massdep-hydrography-125000.

This Feature Service published by MassGIS represents Mouth of River (MOR) lines for Massachusetts coastal rivers originally published by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) on March 1, 2005 as PDF maps. The PDF maps identify the mouth of the river for coastal rivers in order to provide a clear, consistent, and predictable means of locating all river mouths in the Commonwealth. They are the final MOR maps for each community and represent the culmination of a year's effort that included distribution of draft maps for public comment, receipt and review of over 100 written comments, and field surveys for many of the more difficult mouth of river lines. Each Massachusetts coastal community received a set of maps corresponding to the rivers in their community.

The MOR map lines are intended to

identify where a river ends pursuant to 310 CMR 10.58(2)(c). As provided in 310 CMR 10.58(2)(c) "When a river flows into coastal waters or an embayment, the river shall end at the mouth of coastal river line as delineated on the current mouth of coastal river map series maintained by the Department." represent the limit of Riverfront Area jurisdiction under the Wetlands Protection Act. Land upstream of the MOR line includes Riverfront Areas subject to the protections afforded by the Wetlands regulations; any land seaward of the MOR line is not subject to jurisdiction as a Riverfront Area but remains subject to other inland and coastal provisions of the Wetlands Protection Act.By adopting a uniform approach to mapping river mouths, this data should reduce the need for individual MOR delineations and in turn provide a predictable means for project review for landowners, conservation commissions and MassDEP.See full metadataAlso see the Map Service.

This layer depicts the portion of the Riverfront Area (RFA) located in Massachusetts that is known as the “Densely Developed Area” (DDA). The DDA is a 25-foot wide RFA located adjacent to both sides of a river established through the Massachusetts Rivers Protection Act, Acts of 1996 Chapter 258, that is regulated through the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act, Massachusetts General Law 131 § 40. The RFA, including the DDA, was established to protect the following interests: private and public water supply, groundwater, flood control, storm damage prevention, pollution prevention, land containing shellfish, wildlife habitat and fisheries. DDAs were established directly by the Rivers Protection Act, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) through regulation upon initial adoption of the regulations implementing the Rivers Protection Act in 1996, and thereafter by the Massachusetts Secretary of the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (now Energy and Environmental Affairs or EEA). The DDA designation recognizes the RFA is narrow in established densely developed areas. See metadata here…Feature service also available here…

The interactive map displays the water quality data collection sites in the Merrimack River Basin, Massachusetts.

These data are the lidar points collected for FEMA Risk Mapping, Assessment, and Planning (Risk MAP) for the Merrimack River Watershed. This area falls in portions of Hillsborough, Belknap, Merrimack, Rockingham and Strafford counties in New Hampshire and portions of Essex, Middlesex and Worcester counties in Massachusetts. Using a Leica ALS60 LiDAR system, a total of 268 flight lines of hig...

This map shows the location of wetland areas inside of the Ipswich Study Area This map can be used to show where wetlands are located within the Ipswich Study Area.

February 2022

This spring, MassWildlife stocked brook, brown, rainbow, and tiger trout in over 450 lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams in 264 towns across Massachusetts!

These data are the lidar points collected for FEMA Risk Mapping, Assessment, and Planning (Risk MAP) for the Nashua River Watershed. This area falls in portions of Hillsborough County in New Hampshire and portions of Middlesex and Worcester counties in Massachusetts. Using a Leica ALS60 LiDAR system, a total of 35 flight lines of high density (Nominal Pulse Spacing of 2.0 m) were collected over the Nashua area which encompasses 530.3 square miles. A total of 3 missions were flown on May 6, 2011 and May 7, 2011. One airborne global positioning system (GPS) base station was used to support the LiDAR data acquisition: FIT B. The data were received by the NOAA Office for Coastal Management from NH GRANIT. For data storage and Digital Coast provisioning purposes the data were: 1. Converted from UTM Zone 19, meters, NAD83 to geographic coordinates. 2. Converted from NAVD88 (Geoid09), meters to ellipsoid heights, using Geoid09 3. Converted overlap points that were classified as 11 to class 12 (Overlap). Data available for download from the Digital Coast include the following classifications: 1. 1 (Unclassified) 2. 2 (Ground) 3. 7 (Low Point Noise) 4. 9 (Model Key Points) 5. 12 (Overlap)

This datalayer is part of a group of layers used for research in the Ipswich River Watershed. This layer includes the area within each town in the Ipswich River Watershed in vector form. This map contains complete information and was derived from the ip30_noinfo_towns layer. To show area within the towns the make up the Ipswich River Watershed study area.

The 2022 Integrated List of Waters data is the spatial representation of the river, lake, and estuary segments assessed and summarized in the Massachusetts Year 2018 Integrated List of Waters report to the EPA developed pursuant to sections 305(b), 314, and 303(d) of the Federal Clean Water Act.Map service also available.

This datalayer in this map service contains the watershed extents for all surface water supplies including active, inactive, emergency, sources outside of Massachusetts, watersheds that extend into other states and watersheds of sources from other states that extend into Massachusetts. Surface water intakes on Class B Rivers are not included in this datalayer, with the exception of Horn Pond in Woburn where the water is drawn in through wells adjacent to the shoreline.More details...Map service also available.

MassGIS Basemap, as a tile layer hosted at ArcGIS Online.

This map includes a topographic base with terrain and natural features including shaded relief, states outside Massachusetts, water bodies and rivers, wetlands, cranberry bogs, tidal flats, elevation contours and protected open space.

Detailed features include: Political Boundaries (Massachusetts cities and towns and counties), Transportation (Massachusetts Department of Transportation Roads, MBTA subway and Commuter Rail lines and stations, Airports, Airport Runways and Airfields, Ferry Routes and Seaports), Infrastructure and Facilities (Lighthouses, Schools, Colleges and Universities, Hospitals, Police Stations, Fire Stations, Town Halls, Places of Worship and 2-D building roofprints).

Does not include parcels.

This tile cache is used in the MassGIS Basemap web map, which appears in the Basemaps dropdown in MassGIS' ArcGIS Online web maps and apps.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is authorized to regulate the construction of any structure or work within navigable waters under sections 9 and 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act (RHA). The RHA authorizes the COE to regulate the construction of such diverse activities as wharves, breakwaters, or jetties; bank protection or stabilization projects; permanent mooring structures, vessels, or marinas; intake or outfall pipes; canals; boat ramps; aids to navigation; or other modifications affecting the course, location condition, or capacity of navigable waters. The COE's jurisdiction under RHA is limited to "navigable waters," or waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tide shoreward to the mean high water mark that may be used to transport interstate or foreign commerce.

Geotiff image of the Bristol map. Includes collar information

City of Cambridge, MA, GIS basemap development project encompasses the land area of City of Cambridge with a 200-foot fringe surrounding the area and Charles River shoreline towards Boston. The basemap data was developed at 1" = 40' mapping scale using digital photogrammetric techniques. Planimetric features; both man-made and natural features like vegetation, rivers have been depicted. These features are important to all GIS/mapping applications and publication. A set of data layers such as Buildings, Roads, Rivers, Utility structures, 1 ft interval contours are developed and represented in the geodatabase. The features are labeled and coded in order to represent specific feature class for thematic representation and topology between the features is maintained for an accurate representation at the 1:40 mapping scale for both publication and analysis. The basemap data has been developed using procedures designed to produce data to the National Standard for Spatial Data Accuracy (NSSDA) and is intended for use at 1" = 40 ' mapping scale. Where applicable, the vertical datum is NAVD1988.Explore all our data on the Cambridge GIS Data Dictionary.Attributes NameType DetailsDescription ELEV type: Doublewidth: 8precision: 38 Elevation of top of street light above sea level

TYPE type: Stringwidth: 50precision: 0

Adobe PDF of the Quaternary Geologic Map of the Bristol Quadranglerangle, Rhode Island

These ESI data were collected, mapped, and digitized to provide environmental data for oil spill planning and response. The Clean Water Act with amendments by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 requires response plans for immediate and effective protection of sensitive resources. The ESI data include information for three main components: shoreline habitats, sensitive biological resources, and human-use resources. ESI MAPS SHOULD NOT BE USED FOR NAVIGATIONAL PURPOSES. Source data used in the development of these regional atlases range from 1900 to 2005 with much of the data dated from the 1980s, 1990s, to 2005. Source data dates are extensively documented in the included metadata and include the following DE_NJ_PA, data range 1969-1995, compiled 1995, HudsonRiver data range 1942-2005, compiled 2005, Massachusetts data range 1978-1998, compiled 1998, New Hampshire data range 1948-2003, compiled 2003, and RI_CT_NY_NJ data range 1900-2001, compiled 1999.

This atlas update adds data formats to those originally released to accommodate new technologies of digital mapping. The underlying data have not been updated since the atlas publication dates shown. Each ESI atlas listed is provided in a variety of GIS formats, including a personal Geodatabase for use with the ESRI ArcGIS product line. An .mxd file, created in ArcMap 9.3 is also included. This mapping document provides links to all of the data tables and symbolization of the layers using the standardized ESI colors and hatch patterns. Layer files are also supplied. These, together with the associated geodatabase, can be used in other mapping projects to define the symbology and links established in the original ESI .mxd file.

PDF files of the map pages are also included. These PDFS now have the seasonality pages attached to the appropriate map document. This should make it easier to print and distribute individual maps and insure that the supporting information is always included. The GIS data are also provided in ARC Export .e00 format, as shape files with an ArcView 3.x project and in MOSS format. Database files are included in text and .e00 format. Each area directory contains a readme file which shows the area of coverage and gives a bit more description of the various file formats included.

In the 1800s, the spread of railroads enabled the growth and spread of the United States. Although slow by today’s standards, trains traveled more quickly than other forms of transportation available at the time. By train, it took roughly four days to reach San Francisco from Omaha, Nebraska. By contrast, it had taken covered wagons four to six months, and stagecoaches around a month. In addition to travel, railroads facilitated trade and economic growth. Prior to railroads, people relied on a system of roads and canals for transportation of goods and crops. But this system could be unreliable depending on road conditions, the weather, and many other factors. Trains brought products made in the factories of the East and Midwest to the rest of the country and carried farm produce and livestock to urban markets. The first railroad charter was granted to John Stevens in 1815, and several railroads were in service by 1830. Early rail development was haphazard, financed by individual investors and built without government oversight. Rail gauges, or the distance between rails, could be different depending on the company. This caused a lot of problems for connecting railroads, because only trains designed for that gauge could use those sections of track. Despite miles of track being built, people were generally still skeptical about the usefulness of railroads. In 1843, the Western Railroad of Massachusetts proved to Americans that trains could transport crops and other goods long distances at low costs. By 1861, there were 35,400 kilometers (22,000 miles) of track in the North and only 15,300 kilometers (9,500 miles) in the South. Troops and supplies could be transported quickly using trains. Many battles, like the Battle of Bull Run, were fought over control of Southern railway depots, and tracks were used to move both Confederate and Union soldiers to battles. After the Civil War, railway construction increased significantly. In 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act with the goal of building a transcontinental railroad. The first, built by the Central Pacific Railroad Company in the West and the Union Pacific in the Midwest, was completed in 1869. Following roughly the route previously taken by the Pony Express and the California Trail, the route was called the Overland Route. Construction was dangerous, as rail crews had to cross mountains, rivers, and other difficult terrain. For this work, the Central Pacific and Union Pacific relied mainly on immigrant labor, recruiting Chinese immigrants in the West and Irish immigrants in the Midwest. Formerly enslaved people and Mormons were also part of these crews. Between 10,000 and 15,000 Chinese workers completed an estimated 90 percent of work on the Central Pacific’s portion of track, facing racism, violence, and discrimination. Chinese workers were often paid less than white workers and were given the most undesirable and dangerous jobs. The Overland Route was one of the first land-grant railroads. To fund construction of such a long and expensive project, the U.S. government gave railroad companies millions of acres of land that they could sell for profit. Following this model, many more railroads were built, including four additional transcontinental railroads. These new railroads took southern and northern routes across the country. In addition to connecting existing cities on the West Coast to the rest of the country, the railroads also influenced where people settled. Trains made multiple stops to refuel, make repairs, and take on more food and water. In return, towns grew around these stops. More than 7,000 cities and towns west of the Missouri River started as Union Pacific depots and water stops. In 1890, the U.S. Bureau of the Census announced that the “Frontier was closed.” The railroads had played a large role in that milestone. This dataset was researched and built by Dr. Jeremy Atack, Professor Emeritus and Research Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University. His procedure and sources, as well as downloadable files, are documented here.

PIE LTER, Year 2013-2018, remote sensing (Landsat8 OLI sensors and Sentinel-2A/2B) derived sediment concentration maps, transect averaged sediment concentation, water level, dh/dt, wind direction and speed, river discharges for Plum Island Sound estuary, Massachusetts.