Tidal Wetlands 1970's represents the historic regulatory tidal wetland boundaries produced during the early 1970's by the State of Connecticut Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, which defined the areas of tidal wetlands that were subject to the 1969 Tidal Wetlands Act. 

The first comprehensive tidal wetlands mapping of the state was undertaken during the 1970's following the passing of the Tidal Wetland Act (TWA) in 1969. The TWA established a permit program to regulate activities conducted in tidal wetlands. The TWA had a mandatory mapping requirement to let property owners know the approximate location of regulated tidal wetland areas. Unfortunately, during the adoption of the regulations, the tidal wetland maps were given greater importance, than was originally intended, such that the maps were used to determine the regulated area rather than the actual site conditions. The mandated revisions to the maps were never undertaken as no additional funding was authorized.  (See the Tidal Wetlands 1990's Datalayer for subsequent wetlands mapping.)

The regulatory tidal wetland boundaries were surveyed in the field and these boundaries were transferred to 1" = 200' (1: 24000 scale) mylars derived from black and white low altitude aerial photography. It is known that the mapping criteria did change and evolve as the surveyors became more experienced with tidal wetland delineation. It also was not unusual for controversial parcels to be omitted as a result of adverse comments received at public hearings prior to the adoption of the maps. Additionally, no maps were ever produced to show "formerly connected" wetlands, a special type of wetlands.  Thus, even at the time of their adoption, the 1970's tidal wetland maps did not include all known tidal wetlands in Connecticut.  

For more information, please refer to the Tidal Wetlands Report at http://www.ct.gov/dep/lib/dep/gis/coastalresources/tidal_wetlands_report.pdf . 

The layer does not depict current conditions.  It is not updated.

Tidal Wetlands 1970's is 1:24,000-scale data. It depicts the location of some (but not all) tidal wetlands circa the late 1960's and early 1070s. Use this layer to depict the location of historic (1970's) wetlands. Not intended for maps printed at map scales greater or more detailed than 1:24,000 scale (1 inch = 2,000 feet.)

Tidal Wetlands' are defined as follows: 'Tidal Wetlands' means 'wetland' as defined by C.G.S.Sec. 22a-29. C.G.S.Sec.22a-93(7)(E). 'Wetland' means those areas which border or lie beneath tidal waters, such as, but not limited to banks, bogs, salt marshes, swamps, meadows, flats, or other low lands subject to tidal action, including those areas now or formerly connected to tidal waters, and whose surface is at or below an elevation of one foot above local extreme high water; and upon which may grow or be capable of growing some but not necessarily all, of the following: (See the statute for a complete listing of tidally influenced plant species) C.G.S.Sec.22a-29(2). 

Visit http://www.ct.gov/dep/lib/dep/gis/coastalresources/tidal_wetlands_report.pdf for more information.

ground condition

None. No restrictions or legal prerequisites for accessing the data. The data is in the public domain and may be redistributed.

None. No restrictions or legal prerequisites for using the data after access is granted. The data is suitable for use at appropriate scale, and is not intended for maps printed at scales greater or more detailed than 1:24,000 scale (1 inch = 2,000 feet). Although this data set  has been used by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection as to the accuracy of the data and or related materials.  The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection in the use of these data or related materials. The user assumes the entire risk related to the use of these data. Once the data is distributed to the user, modifications made to the data by the user should be noted in the metadata. When printing this data on a map or using it in a software application, analysis, or report, please acknowledge the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection as the source for this information.

These data are suitable for planning purposes only, and should not be used to make regulatory or jurisdictional boundary determinations.

Includes Tidal Wetland features such as Av_Legend that categorizes the polygon feature as Upland or Tidal Wetland Area.  Use the AV_LEGEND attribute to symbolize features by type on a map. Use the Acreage attribute to display the size of the polygon feature in acres.   

Tidal Wetlands 1970's represented as polygon features.

State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection

Polygon features conform to the following topological rules. Polygons are single part. There are no duplicate polygons. Polygons do not self overlap. Polygons do not overlap other polygons. 

Establishment of logical consistency was performed by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection using ESRI ArcGIS software to manually create and control feature topology in SHAPEFILE format. No automated procedures or tests were performed to guarantee desired topology other than visual inspection.

The completeness of the data reflects the feature content of the data sources, which include the maps, mylars and field data sheets. The TIDAL_WETLANDS_1970S layer is complete in the sense that it accurately reflects the contents of the information available at the time the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection created the layer. However, compared to current conditions, the TIDAL_WETLANDS_1970S layer is incomplete. This data is not updated.

The TIDAL_WETLANDS_1970S layer retains the feature types and information identified by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection and obtained from the maps & reports.  All attributes have valid values. Values are within defined domains. The accuracy test for the AV_LEGEND attribute values was conducted by comparing the information presented in the source data with 1:24,000-scale check plots or interactive displays of the data on a computer graphic system. These check plot maps and computer displays depicted and labeled the TIDAL_WETLANDS_1970S features in different colors based on  AV_LEGEND values for comparison with the original data source.  The  ACREAGE (area in acres) field was automatically calculated for each polygon feature based on computer generated feature area in square feet.

The horizontal positional accuracy of this data is unknown.

Some features are accurately positioned because the source materials were of sufficient quality and the interpretations refelcted that, and other features are inaccurately positioned because either the source data was not of suffcient quality or the interpretations were flawed..

Tidal Wetlands 1970s

Although this data set  has been used by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection as to the accuracy of the data and or related materials.  The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and no responsibility is assumed by the State of Connecticut, Department of Environmental Protection in the use of these data or related materials. The user assumes the entire risk related to the use of these data. Once the data is distributed to the user, modifications made to the data by the user should be noted in the metadata.

Geographic information sytem (GIS), computer-aided drawing or other mapping software is necessary to display, view and access the information.

The data distributor does not provide custom GIS analysis or mapping services. Data is available in a standard format and may be converted to other formats, projections, coordinate systems, or selected for specific geographic regions by the party receiving the data.

None. No restrictions or legal prerequisites for accessing the metadata.

None. No restrictions or legal prerequisites for using the metadata after access is granted.