New Brunswick Hydrographic Network - Information

The New Brunswick Hydrographic Network (NBHN) was created by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in partnership with Service New Brunswick and contributions from the Department of Environment and Canadian Rivers Institute. It is the official hydrographic base for the Province and is intended to become the authoritative water network.

The NBHN is based on the National Hydrographic Network (NHN) standards which have been modified slightly to meet NB stakeholder needs. The NBHN is being developed incrementally with continuous improvements and maintenance occurring on an on-going basis.

The NBHN is available through GeoNB in four options:

1. If you just want to view the data, it is available as part of the Topo Map within the GeoNB map viewer: http://geonb.snb.ca/geonb/
2. If you want to add the NBHN to your online mapping application you can connect to the NBHN map service: http://geonb.snb.ca/ArcGIS/rest/services/GeoNB_DNR_NBHN/MapServer ,
3. If you want to view the NBHN map service using your GIS software, you can add the GeoNB ArcGIS server: http://geonb.snb.ca/ArcGIS/services. Additional information on viewing GeoNB map services in ArcMap are available here: http://www.snb.ca/gdam-igec/e/2900e_2.asp,
4. If you want to download the NBHN and use in your GIS (in shape file format or ESRI file geodatabase): http://www.snb.ca/gdam-igec/e/2900e_1.asp,

Updates to the NBHN are expected every 6 months. Version 1 of the NBHN (February 2012) does not have all of the attribute fields populated. The maintenance of the NBHN is on-going and each version will contain improvements to geometry and attributes.

Shape File Download Includes: NBHN_0000_01_Wc: Watercourse feature class NBHN_0000_02_Wb: Waterbody feature class NBHN_0000_04_Junc: Junction feature class NBHN_0000_05_Is: Island feature class NBHN_0000_07_Wshed: Watershed feature class NBHN_0000_NAMES: Watercourse Names table	Geodatabase File Download Includes: NBHN_0000_01_Wc: Watercourse feature class NBHN_0000_02_Wb: Waterbody feature class NBHN_0000_04_Junc: Junction feature class NBHN_0000_05_Is: Island feature class NBHN_0000_07_Wshed: Watershed feature class NBHN_0000_Names: Watercourse Names table NBHN_Net: Geometric Network NBHN_Net_Junctions: point feature class
NBHN Structure (Click for larger image)	NBHN Geometry (Click for larger image)

Feature classes are homogeneous collections of common features, each having the same spatial representation, such as points, lines or polygons, and a common set of attribute columns, for example, a polygon feature class for representing water bodies like lakes, ponds and oceans (from http://wiki.gis.com/wiki/index.php/Feature_class)

Feature Descriptions

NBHN_0000_01_Wc
Watercourse feature class: Lines that represent the flow of water in the hydrographic network. This includes naturally observed flows, inferred spines through waterbodies and wetlands, and constructed ones that artificially join watercourses to a network. Populated attributes included in version 1 are Water definition, Network flow type, Water ID and Watershed code.

NBHN_0000_02_Wb
Waterbody feature class: Polygons that represent an area of open water of sufficient size. Included in this layer are lakes, ponds, riverbeds, aquaculture sites and ocean. The flow of water through waterbodies is represented in the hydrographic network by spines. Populated attributes included in version 1 are Water definition and Watershed code.

NBHN_0000_04_Junc
Junction feature class: Points that are spatially connected to one or more watercourses. Junctions are coded to indicate the kind of hydrographic network, waterbody, and wetland geometry that meet at that point. Populated attributes included in version 1 are Junction Type and Watershed code.

NBHN_0000_05_Is
Island feature class: Polygons that represent land areas surrounded by water areas. This includes coastal islands occurring in the ocean polygon and potentially transient islands composed mainly of sand with limited vegetation. Populated attributes included in version 1 are watershed code.

NBHN_0000_07_Wshed
Watershed feature class: Polygons that define a segment of a hydrographic network based on the NB Aquatic Data Warehouse watershed drainage areas. Populated attributes included in version 1 are Watershed code, Level 1 name and Level 2 name.

NBHN_0000_NAMES
Names is a table containing the names for officially named rivers and streams. Some named streams may not be included where they are currently under review. This table is linked to the NBHN_0000_01_Wc feature class based on the NAMEID and NAMEID1 fields respectively. The name is given in the NBHN_0000_Names, Name field.

NBHN_Net
NBHN_Net is a geometric network containing the NBHN_0000_01_Wc, NBHN_0000_04_Junc and NBHN_Net_Junctions. A geometric network is a set of connected edges and junctions, along with connectivity rules, that are used to represent and model the behavior of a common network infrastructure in the real world. This allows the user to perform network analyses on the data.