Mapping the Current River Watershed
The Current River is a National Treasure, beautifully articulating the Karst Topography of the Ozarks. The area has seen extensive conservation investments and much of the watershed is held by both public and private conservation agencies and organizations. People from across the state, country and world come to experience the amazing wilderness first hand. The watershed offers many opportunities for floating, camping, fishing, hunting, hiking, and horse back riding.
This area is cherished by everyone, from the locals that often earn a living welcoming visitors and providing great outdoor experiences, to the travelers from around the world that come to marvel at the crystal clear waters of the Current and the gushing Big Spring. Among Missourians the river is at the top of the list of in-state destinations for a great summer weekend in the great outdoors or a quiet fall weekday with nature. We love this area so much we decided to put together some maps of the watershed with the hope that they would foster conservation conversations and help people better understand the watershed.
We welcome your feedback and we will correct inaccuracies as they are brought to our attention. The majority of the data we have used has been drawn from public agencies, partnerships and organizations that invested significant resources in the development of these datasets. We would like to thank the following groups for providing such a great array of data for public use:
Missouri Spatial Data Information Service
Missouri Resource Assessment Partnership
Missouri Department of Natural Resources
United States Fish & Wildlife Service
United States Geological Survey
United States Department of Agriculture
USDA - Natural Resource Conservation Service
USDA - National Agriculture Statistical Service
United States Environmental Protection Agency
National Park Service
This project was funded through generous support from the LAD Foundation, with a technology grant for Google Maps Engine from Google, and discounted ArcGIS software from ESRI.
This area is cherished by everyone, from the locals that often earn a living welcoming visitors and providing great outdoor experiences, to the travelers from around the world that come to marvel at the crystal clear waters of the Current and the gushing Big Spring. Among Missourians the river is at the top of the list of in-state destinations for a great summer weekend in the great outdoors or a quiet fall weekday with nature. We love this area so much we decided to put together some maps of the watershed with the hope that they would foster conservation conversations and help people better understand the watershed.
We welcome your feedback and we will correct inaccuracies as they are brought to our attention. The majority of the data we have used has been drawn from public agencies, partnerships and organizations that invested significant resources in the development of these datasets. We would like to thank the following groups for providing such a great array of data for public use:
Missouri Spatial Data Information Service
Missouri Resource Assessment Partnership
Missouri Department of Natural Resources
United States Fish & Wildlife Service
United States Geological Survey
United States Department of Agriculture
USDA - Natural Resource Conservation Service
USDA - National Agriculture Statistical Service
United States Environmental Protection Agency
National Park Service
This project was funded through generous support from the LAD Foundation, with a technology grant for Google Maps Engine from Google, and discounted ArcGIS software from ESRI.
Interactive Maps
Interactive maps can help people better understand how the watershed works, we created interactive online maps. These maps allow you to check some of the relevant GIS data on hydrology & hydrography, recreational use, mining & prospects, and human impacts. Interactive maps allow the viewer to zoom in and out, change the background, turn data layers on and off, and click on data features to check out the data associated with the GIS Features. We plan to continue adding to and refining these interactive maps as we integrate more datasets into Google Maps Engine.
The data depicted in these maps has been downloaded from public data sites or provided by project partners, see the data sources & links page for more information. The cloud mapping technology used in this project was partially supported by a Google Maps Engine Non-Profit Grant.
The data depicted in these maps has been downloaded from public data sites or provided by project partners, see the data sources & links page for more information. The cloud mapping technology used in this project was partially supported by a Google Maps Engine Non-Profit Grant.
This is a screenshot of our Hydrology & Hydrography Interactive Map. The listing of layers on the left allow you to turn them on and off. You can change the basemap by clicking on the dropdown button in the upper right corner of the map window. You can zoom in or out using the + and - buttons in the lower right corner of the map window. And you can use the search bar to look for a place or address in the watershed.
Google Earth files
Google Earth Files are great because anyone with a computer and an internet connection can download them and open them in Google Earth. In Google Earth the user can change the map symbols and styles, utilize aerial imagery underlays over time using the Historical Imagery tool, view the data in on a 3D terrain model, and turn on the other layers included within the Google Earth Framework. We have put together a library of the Google Earth files using the data from the interactive maps, so that users can go deeper into the data and even build their own maps. Go to the link on the page to download Google Earth if you don't already have it, then you can go to File -> Open to access any of the datasets on our Google Earth Files page.
map images
High-resolution map images allow us to compose the rich combinations of data at a scale and resolution that allows a more holistic understanding of the watershed. We have created a series of high-resolution map images combining a wide range of related datasets. These maps include various depictions of the land cover and land uses in the watershed from the USDA, Missouri Resources Assessment Partnership, and the National Park Service. There are a few maps of potential human impacts from deforestation, roads, recreational use, mining and pollution with data from the Missouri DNR and EPA. There is an initial analyses of intersections between roads and mapped streams to help located crossings that may restrict migration of some aquatic species upstream and downstream. This map uses data from the USGS National Hydrography 1:24,000 Dataset, the Missouri Aquatic Gap Analyses - Missouri Valley Segment Type 1:100,000 Stream Classification Dataset, and roads data from the Missouri Department of Transportation--to locate stream crossings and assign a magnitude to crossings of 1:100,000 scale streams. There is a map of soil classifications that helps us better understand the geologic processes that form the landscape with data from the USDA SSURGO soils database. These maps can be downloaded or viewed in your web browser.