Disclaimer

The spatial data, metadata and associated textual content provided on this CD are distributed “as is” and devoid of warranty in regards to their performance. The responsibility of the risks associated in regards to the results and representations of the datasets is understood by the user. In all cases, the user should refer to the associated metadata files for accuracy, currentness and appropriate contact information. Project partners and contributing agencies shall not have any liability to any person or entity with respect to liability, loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by information contained on this CD.

Metadata Disclaimer

The data on this disc have been developed, analyzed and geoprocessed by professional scientists and organizations. However, the project partners and contributing agencies makes no warranty, express or implied, regarding its data or utility. It is recommended that thorough attention be given to the contents of any metadata associated with a file, and that the originator of the data be consulted with any inquiries regarding suitable use of a dataset. Russian River Watershed GIS project partners and contributing agencies shall not be held legally responsible for erroneous use of the data contained on this CD.

Many of the datasets acquired for the RRGIS were referenced in varying projection systems and cover diverse geographic extents (watersheds, counties, regions and states). In order to align the datasets, the data was clipped to the extent of the Russian River watershed and re-projected to UTM NAD 83 Zone 10 North, when necessary. In compliance with federal standards dictating the documentation of spatial data, each dataset on the RRGIS has a corresponding FGDC compliant metadata file that is accessible directly from the RRGIS CD. Whenever possible, the metadata describing the original file that was processed for the RRGIS has been included for the purposes of providing the most thorough and informative documentation of the spatial data included in the RRGIS. For a guide to the metadata format and terminology, click here.

Installation and Data Access

The Russian River Watershed GIS (RRGIS) is structured so that users may fully access the spatial data as well as a predefined view of the data through an ESRI ArcView project file. Textual content in the form of .html files has been included on the CD to provide the user with information describing the RRGIS, the project partners/contributing agencies, the NOAA Fisheries recovery planning process and contact information.

Textual content is most readily accessed via the ‘readme.html’ and ‘index.html’ files, using a current web browser. To download a browser capable of viewing this information, please visit http://www.netscape.com or http://www.microsoft.com.

Spatial data is most readily accessed directly through a series of folders included on the CD. The parent directory, ‘rrgis’ contains a series of subfolders titled by the topic of the data contained in that folder. For a predefined view of the data the user can access rrgis.apr using ESRIS’s ArcView 3x or higher. This .apr file can be viewed in ESRI’s ArcMAP using the import .apr capabilities inherent in ArcGIS software. The .apr file is located in the ‘rrgis’ parent directory.

Rrgis.apr was developed using the following path as the parent directory: c:/rrgis. Although the .apr file has been customized to open appropriately, regardless of the drive letter, it is possible that the .apr file may try to access data from c:/rrgis. If this occurs, an ArcView dialog box will appear, asking the user to locate various files. To reduce the chance of encountering these errors, please follow the installation instructions below:

Insert the RRGIS CD into your CD drive. Copy the ‘rrgis’ folder from the CD and paste this folder onto your hard drive. Essentially, you are simply copying the contents of the CD to your hard drive.  From here, the user may open the rrgis.apr or work with specific datasets on their own, taking them from the subfolders located in the ‘rrgis’ directory.

The rrgis.apr file is constructed to mirror the file structure of the data folders on the CD. For each View document in the .apr file, there is a subfolder with that same name on the CD. The table of contents for each view contains each theme from the corresponding data folder. For each theme, there is a corresponding .avl file that can be used to symbolize each dataset.

A pull down menu has been added to the View document type in the rrgis.apr file. The pull down menu titled ‘Data Lists/Metadata’ provides the user with an easily accessible, html listing of the spatial data included on the CD as well as a hyperlink to the metadata for each dataset. Using the pull down, the user can select the web browser that they want to utilize to access the data list.

For those users who are not currently running ESRI’s ArcVIew, the installation file (ae2setup.exe) and installation manual (arcexplorer.pdf) for ArcExplorer have been included in the ‘rrgis’ parent directory. ESRI’s ArcExplorer is a lightweight, freely distributed GIS data viewer, developed by ESRI. For more information on ArcExplorer, please visit http://www.esri.com.

For assistance with using the data on the RRGIS, please contact:

David Bennett
GIS Coordinator
Circuit Rider Productions, Inc.
Windsor, CA 95492

(Phone) 707.838.6641
(Fax) 707.838.4503
(e-mail) dbennett@crpinc.org