Geospatial database of sampled sites and watershed and riparian characteristics of Puget Sound lowland ecoregion streams sampled for the 2015 Stormwater Action Monitoring status and trends study

Stormwater Action Monitoring (SAM) is a collaborative monitoring program between western Washington municipal stormwater permittees, state and federal agencies. SAMs role is to use the results of regional monitoring and focused studies to inform policy decisions and identify effective strategies to improve stormwater management in the Puget Sound region. The SAM program includes status and trends monitoring of water quality, stream biota (macroinvertebrates, algae), and stream habitat to measure whether conditions are getting better or worse and identify patterns in healthy and impaired Puget Lowland streams.
The first round of status and trends monitoring of Puget lowland streams took place in 2015 and one goal of this initial data collection was to identify human and anthropogenic factors that are influencing stream health in the region. To meet this goal, a framework of fundamental geospatial data was required to develop physical and anthropogenic characteristics of the sampled sites and corresponding watersheds, and riparian zones. This dataset is composed of the four fundamental geospatial data layers that were developed for the SAM lowland streams study: 1) sampled sites, 2) watershed boundaries, 3) riparian-zone boundaries, and 4) landscape characteristics of the watersheds and riparian-zones.