DOI: 10.5061/dryad.0k6djhb4q
title: Data from: beyond the case study: characterizing natural floodplain heterogeneity in the United States

description: As river channels move across the valley floor, they create diverse
 topography including natural levees, cutoff meanders, secondary channels,
 and floodplain wetlands. These features increase the spatial heterogeneity
 of the floodplain. Many studies indicate that this heterogeneity strongly
 influences habitat abundance and diversity, storage of flood waters and
 excess nitrate or phosphate, and other floodplain functions. However, no
 one has systematically measured floodplain heterogeneity across multiple
 rivers and different geographic regions. We measured the heterogeneity of
 natural floodplains at 14 sites in the continental United States using
 metrics developed by landscape ecologists. We find that natural
 floodplains have distinctive heterogeneity signatures that relate to
 drainage area, the size of the floodplain, and other characteristics. The
 data included here are the original field data associated with 14 of the
 field sites, including GPS locations of floodplain transects, floodplain
 patches, sediment cores, and large wood; and delineated floodplain
 shapefiles.
description: The field data were collected along transects approximately
 evenly spaced and perpendicular to the valley trend with handheld Garmin
 GPS units (all locations), hand tapes (wood diameters), and hand-driven
 sediment corers (soil cores), except where noted explicitly in the data
 files. Dates of data collection and descriptions of classes identified
 visually in the field are included in each data file. The data documents
 areas of the floodplains that were accessible by car and foot at the time
 the data were collected and that time and resources allowed. The
 floodplain polygons were hand drawn in ArcGIS Pro using the field transect
 boundaries, digital elevation models (at least 10 m spatial resolution),
 Sentinel imagery, and park boundaries where applicable, and were generally
 drawn to exclude most of the human-impacted areas, but not all were
 excluded. Ten-meter geodesic buffers were added to most of the floodplain
 boundaries to account for field and/or user error (see specifics in README
 file).
description: The field data are compiled in .xlsx files that can be opened in
 Microsoft Excel or for free in Google Sheets (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets). The floodplain polygons are .shp files and can be opened in Esri’s ArcGIS Pro or for free in QGIS (https://qgis.org/en/site/).
description: # Data associated with beyond the case study: Characterizing natural
 floodplain heterogeneity in the United States --- This repository contains
 field data and floodplain boundary shapefiles for 14 floodplain sites in
 the United States used in Iskin and Wohl (2023). The data are the original
 field data associated with the 14 field sites, including GPS locations of
 floodplain transects, floodplain patches, sediment cores, and large wood,
 and shapefiles of the delineated floodplains. ## Description of the data
 and file structure This dataset was collected to investigate floodplain
 heterogeneity in the United States and contains data from 14 natural
 floodplains, collected between 2010 and 2022. The data were collected
 along transects approximately evenly spaced and perpendicular to the
 valley trend with handheld Garmin GPS units (all locations), hand tapes
 (wood diameters), and hand-driven sediment corers (soil cores), except
 where noted explicitly in the data files. Dates of data collection and
 descriptions of classes identified visually in the field are included in
 each data file. The data documents areas of the floodplains that were
 accessible by car and foot at the time the data were collected and that
 time and resources allowed. There is one folder for each field site. The
 folder contains on workbook with the following four sheets and one
 shapefile: Class Descriptions contains field site name, date the data were
 collected, and written descriptions of the floodplain class types and the
 associated class numbers throughout the rest of the file. There is an
 unlimited number of classes per site. If the Class Boundaries sheet is
 blank, no class data was collected at the site or came from another study
 cited in Iskin and Wohl (2023). Class Boundaries contains boundaries of
 each patch of each class for each floodplain transect. There are up to 10
 transects per site, unlimited number patches per class and per transect.
 Start Lat, Start Long, End Lat, and End Long indicate the
 linear/on-transect boundaries of the patch in Decimal Degrees and WGS 1984
 coordinate reference system. Other Lat and Other Long indicate boundaries
 for other interesting features in the patch and on the transect with
 details given in the Notes column. Optional Notes provides field and/or
 data processing comments. - indicates missing data. If the Class
 Boundaries sheet is blank, no class data was collected at the site or came
 from another study cited in Iskin and Wohl (2023). Large Wood contains
 on-transect locations (Lat and Long) and diameter (in centimeters) of all
 the pieces of large wood ( 1m long and 10cm diameter) on the transect
 and/or logjams (at least three pieces of large wood), including which
 transect it was located on and which class it was in. A few sites have
 length (cm) of wood pieces. Optional Notes provides field and/or data
 processing comments. - indicates missing data. If the Large Wood sheet is
 blank, no large wood was encountered at the site or came from another
 study cited in Iskin and Wohl (2023). Sediment Cores contains locations
 (Lat and Long) of sediment cores taken for each class. Date Collected
 lists the specific date each core was collected, Transect indicates
 approximately which transect the core was taken on, Class indicates which
 class the core was taken in, and Core indicates which number core the data
 refers to (generally, sites have two cores per class). Depth indicates the
 range of depth below the surface of the soil the core is from, Water
 Content indicates categorical wetness of the core (dry no moisture at all;
 moist evidence of moisture, i.e. clumping, dampness; saturated fully wet
 core); %Sand, %Silt, and %Clay indicate the content of each core in
 percentage; and Soil Texture indicated the categorical soil texture.
 Optional Notes provides field and/or data processing comments. - indicates
 missing data. %Sand, %Silt, %Clay, and Soil Texture data from analysis
 performed by Ward Laboratories Inc. in Kerney, Nebraska. If the Large Wood
 sheet is blank, no large wood was encountered at the site. If the Sediment
 Cores sheet is blank, no sediment cores were collected at the site or came
 from another study cited in Iskin and Wohl (2023). Shapefile shapefile of
 the floodplain boundary used in the analysis in Iskin and Wohl (2023). The
 shapefiles were hand drawn in ArcGIS Pro using the field data, and other
 raster data collected from various sources (digital elevation models,
 Sentinel-2A mosaics, and National Park boundaries). The floodplain
 boundaries should be considered approximate and are based on data
 available as of 2022. They were generally drawn to exclude most of the
 human-impacted areas, but not all were excluded. Ten-meter geodesic
 buffers were added to most of the floodplain boundaries to account for
 field and/or user error. Buffer details provided with each file name
 below. ## Acronyms AGA Altamaha River, Georgia CSC Congaree River, South
 Carolina DFWY Downs Fork, Wyoming DWY Dinwoody Creek, Wyoming EIL Embarras
 River, Illinois EPC East Plum Creek, Colorado HWA Hoh River, Washington
 LOR Lookout Creek NSV North St. Vrain Creek, Colorado RTCO Rough and
 Tumbling Creek, Colorado SDWA Sol Duc River, Washington SMT Swan River,
 Montana SOK Sand Creek, Oklahoma WBJ West Bijou Creek, Colorado P# -
 indicates a specific patch of the numbered class T# - indicates transect
 number CPOM Coarse particulate organic matter DBH diameter at breast
 height, indicates the approximate diameter of standing trees in the
 class/patch FP floodplain HWM high water marks, indications of recent flow
 and minimum approximation of flow depth ## Data Files AGA: Field
 Data_AGA.xlsx Contains one additional sheet titled Wet Patch Boundary that
 includes GPS points (Lat, Long, and Point ID) outlining the perimeter of a
 single patch. FP_AGA_10m.shp Buffered (10m) floodplain polygon CSC: Field
 Data_CSC.xlsx Only contains calculated large wood load data used in Iskin
 and Wohl (2023). No class/patch or sediment core data was collected at
 this site. FP_CSC_10m.shp Buffered (10m) floodplain polygon DFWY: Field
 Data_DFWY.xlsx Only contains transect locations and calculated large wood
 load data used in Iskin and Wohl (2023). No class/patch or sediment core
 data was collected at this site. FP_DFWY_nobuffer.shp Floodplain polygon
 (no buffer, adjacent to DWY) DWY: Field Data_DWY.xlsx Only contains
 transect locations and calculated large wood load data used in Iskin and
 Wohl (2023). No class/patch or sediment core data was collected at this
 site. FP_DWY_nobuffer.shp Floodplain polygon (no buffer, adjacent to DFWY)
 EIL: Field Data_EIL.xlsx some logjams measured by piece with diameter and
 length of large wood, some by piece with large and small wood (SW; &lt; 1m
 long and/or &lt; 10cm diameter), and some with the box method. The box
 method calculates volume of the logjam from approximate length (L) x width
 (W) x depth (D) of the logjam multiplied by (1 Porosity (P%)), instead of
 measuring all of the pieces of large wood individually. Porosity is
 measured visually and represents the percentage of the rectangular prism,
 or box, that is made up of air space. FP_EIL_10m.shp Buffered (10m)
 floodplain polygon (buffer added before agricultural areas removed) EPC:
 Field Data_EPC.xlsx FP_WBJ_EPC.shp Buffered (10m) floodplain polygon HWA:
 Field Data_HWA.xlsx FP_HWA_10m.shp Buffered (10m) floodplain polygon LOR:
 Field Data_LOR.xlsx some logjams measured by piece with diameter and
 length of large wood, some with the box method. The box method calculates
 volume of the logjam from approximate length (L) x width (W) x depth (D)
 of the logjam multiplied by (1 Porosity (P%)), instead of measuring all of
 the pieces of large wood individually. Porosity is measured visually and
 represents the percentage of the rectangular prism, or box, that is made
 up of air space. FP_LOR_10m.shp Buffered (10m) floodplain polygon NSV: No
 field data collected FP_NSV_10m.shp Buffered (10m) floodplain polygon
 RTCO: Field Data_RTCO.xlsx FP_RTCO_10m.shp Buffered (10m) floodplain
 polygon SDWA: Field Data\_ SDWA.xlsx some logjams just included as
 individual pieces of wood with diameter and one with the box method. The
 box method calculates volume of the logjam from approximate length (L) x
 width (W) x depth (D) of the logjam multiplied by (1 Porosity (P%)),
 instead of measuring all of the pieces of large wood individually.
 Porosity is measured visually and represents the percentage of the
 rectangular prism, or box, that is made up of air space. FP\_ SDWA
 \_10m.shp Buffered (10m) floodplain polygon SMT: Field Data_SMT.xlsx Class
 and Sediment Core data collected in 2022, Large Wood data collected in
 2017 FP_SMT_10m.shp Buffered (10m) floodplain polygon (buffer added before
 high elevation non-floodplain surfaces removed) SOK: Field Data_SOK.xlsx
 FP_SOK_10m.shp Buffered (10m) floodplain polygon WBJ: Field Data_WBJ.xlsx
 FP_WBJ_10m.shp Buffered (10m) floodplain polygon ## Contact Information
 Emily Iskin, Ellen Wohl,
 ## Data Citation Iskin, E.P. & Wohl,
 E. (2023). Data associated with Beyond the Case Study: Characterizing
 Natural Floodplain Heterogeneity in the United States, Dryad, Dataset.
 ## Related Work Iskin,
 E.P. & Wohl, E. (2023). Beyond the Case Study: Characterizing Natural
 Floodplain Heterogeneity in the United States, Water Resources Research,
 e2023WR035162.