Columbia River Basin Population Crosswalk Geodatabase and Online Interactive Mapping Application

The Columbia Basin needs a crosswalk of fish populations/units (p/u), using data which has already been defined by each managing entity within the Basin. The crosswalk will be a first step in a unifying framework and will be built as a spatial database in which each manager’s fish p/u are defined by subwatersheds and displayed in an online interactive mapping application. Visualizing how similar, or different, fish managers define the attributes of population/units, and how they are geographically bound on the landscape is the first step toward any agreement of a single name and definition of a fish p/u. Whether collectively the Basin-wide managers ultimately agree, or agree to disagree, on the names and characteristics of fish p/u, the crosswalk spatial database and mapping application will allow managers to place themselves on the landscape within the geographic boundaries of their fish p/u and know that data collected by another manager under a different fish p/u name, or in another watershed, overlaps the boundaries of their fish p/u.