Memorandum of Understanding Regarding the Use and Maintenance of the California Watershed Map

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Memorandum of Understanding (134 KB)
2004 Addenda Update (20KB)

An Addenda Update to the original MOU was finalized in 2004, and a was letter sent to all MOU Agency Signatories
to advise them of the update.

This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is entered into by and between the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF), the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG), the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (USDA-NRCS), the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the use, management, and maintenance of a common watershed map of California.

Purpose

This MOU establishes the respective responsibilities relating to using, managing, and maintaining the newly developed California Watershed Map (CalWater, current version 2.0, release date), which is a digital data set, mapped on the USGS 7.5 minute series. A copy of CalWater is attached and incorporated by this reference herein to this MOU.

Intent

This "Memorandum of Understanding", or "MOU", is not itself intended to be a contract. This document is intended to set forth policy, described below, in the use and maintenance of the California Watershed Map.

This agreement is a commitment by all involved agencies to reference the California Watershed Map watershed delineations for resource management and planning studies; for environmental assessment, analysis, and regulatory purposes; for presentations of resource information and interagency communications; and as the base for future mapping and modeling activities related to watershed management. Agencies may develop special versions of this primary base map for their own needs, as long as the integrity of CalWater is not jeopardized. All parties agree that the California Watershed Map, with four levels of watershed subdivision, will be accepted, with the understanding that level four (subarea) delineations will continue to be examined in greater detail and revised, if necessary. It is further agreed that all parties will continue to examine the additional watershed subdivisions (levels five and six) done by CDF. This MOU also defines procedures for modifications and distribution of the map.

Background and Objectives

Over the past several decades various attempts have been made to develop a reliable watershed map of California that would be free from indiscriminate modifications. In early 1995, the California Department of Water Resources initiated an interagency effort to produce detailed digital coverage that would be acceptable to all resource agencies in California. At that time, DWR established an interagency committee to develop watershed delineation criteria, and to review on-going work by CDF to digitize watershed boundaries. See Exhibit A for more information on the background. Exhibit A is attached and incorporated herein by this reference.

The attached Exhibit B, which is incorporated herein by this reference, presents the criteria followed in delineating the watersheds shown on CalWater. These criteria were developed and agreed upon by the committee members.

The attached Exhibit C, which is incorporated herein by this reference, presents the procedure used to identify the hierarchy designations of the four levels of watershed subdivision.

Selection and Responsibility of Custodian, Distributor, and Archival Facility

The interagency committee members will select the custodian, distributor, and archival facility for CalWater for three years, after which the committee members may reassess those appointments.

The Custodian shall:

be an entity competent in both GIS technology and watershed delineation skills.
be responsible for coordinating with the other agencies on any future necessary modifications or editing of the map file, and for arranging such changes in the GIS coverage; further, the custodian shall not modify or change any of the watershed delineations without approval of all agencies signatory to this MOU
be responsible for initiating periodic meetings of the committee, as needed, to discuss activities related to CalWater
provide the most current published version of the map file to distributors and to archives

Distributors:

can be all of the signatory agencies, at their option
shall retain the latest version of CalWater on a computer home page for users to access, along with any necessary notifications of changes to the file.

The Archival Facility shall:

have necessary expertise and equipment to store the most current copy of the data file, and have the file available on an 'ftp' site
store a secure copy of the official version of the file

DWR has agreed to be the custodian for a three year period, and Teale Data Center has agreed to be the archival facility.

Terms of MOU

This MOU may be amended only by mutual written agreement of the parties hereto. This MOU shall commence upon the signatures of all parties involved.

Termination

This MOU may be terminated by mutual written consent of all of the parties. An agency may terminate its participation in this MOU upon 60 days written notice to the other cooperating agencies.