One Watershed One Plan Planning Areas
Go to Section:- Overview
- Data Quality
- Data Organization
- Coordinate System
- Attributes
- Distribution - Get Data
- Metadata Reference
Section 1: Overview
Originator:MN Board of Water and Soil Resources
Title:
One Watershed One Plan Planning Areas
Abstract:
This depicts boundaries used for developing comprehensive watershed management plans through the Board of Water and Soil Resources’ One Watershed, One Plan program according to Minnesota Statutes §103B.801.
This data represents a “final” set of agreed-upon boundaries; BWSR retired the Interim Planning Boundaries for One Watershed, One Plan data layer in March 2025. See the Lineage section for more information.
Purpose:
The Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) established the One Watershed, One Plan program based on recommendations from the Local Government Water Roundtable, which includes the Association of Minnesota Counties, the Minnesota Association of Watershed Districts, and the Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts. This program enables Minnesota’s counties, soil and water conservation districts, and watershed districts to collaboratively develop and implement comprehensive watershed management plans, creating a single plan that spans multiple local governments and fulfills planning requirements described in Minnesota Statutes.
The program selected the HUC-08 major watershed as the general scale for planning and allows for modifications to planning boundaries to accommodate better coordination between local governments.
This data defines the boundaries used by partnerships to develop shared comprehensive watershed management plans. This data is for planning purposes only; it does not describe jurisdictional boundaries.
Time Period of Content Date:
03/14/2025
Currentness Reference:
Date last updated
Progress:
Complete
Maintenance and Update Frequency:
As needed
Spatial Extent of Data:
Statewide
Bounding Coordinates:
-97.23
-89.53
49.37
43.5
Place Keywords:
Minnesota, MN
Theme Keywords:
One Watershed, One Plan
Theme Keyword Thesaurus:
Access Constraints:
Use Constraints:
General planning purposes only.
Contact Person Information:
Julie Westerlund,
One Watershed, One Plan Coordinator
Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources
520 Lafayette Road
St. Paul,
MN
55155
Phone: 651-600-0694
Email: julie.westerlund@state.mn.us
Browse Graphic:
None available
Associated Data Sets:
Section 2: Data Quality
Attribute Accuracy:
Logical Consistency:
Completeness:
Horizontal Positional Accuracy:
Lineage:
The 1W1P planning boundaries are based on the DNR Level04 - HUC 08 - Major Watersheds (circa 2013). In some cases, watersheds were combined or split according to subwatershed or jurisdictional boundaries to accommodate better planning coordination between local governments.
As required by Minnesota Statutes §103B.101, Subdivision 14, BWSR introduced a suggested boundary framework in 2014. This framework was to guide the development, approval, adoption, and coordination of comprehensive watershed management plans as described in Minnesota Statutes §103B.801. The framework comprises three components: a suggested boundary map, procedures for proposing alternative boundaries, and criteria for evaluating requested changes to the boundary map.
Between 2014 and 2024, BWSR modified the suggested boundary data multiple times in response to requests from planning partnerships. During that time, BWSR maintained an Interim Planning Boundaries for One Watershed, One Plan data layer to depict changes that had been proposed but not yet approved by the Board (changes to the boundary data are finalized upon Board approval of plans or plan amendments incorporating modified boundaries).
By August 2024 the program achieved the full expected participation (BWSR does not expect parts of the 7-county metropolitan area to join the program) resulting in agreed-upon statewide boundary data and eliminating the need for the Interim Planning Boundaries for One Watershed, One Plan data layer. BWSR retired this layer in March 2025.
Future changes to this data may still happen according to the steps laid out in the One Watershed, One Plan Operating Procedures and would be incorporated into these data when the Board approves a plan or plan amendment.
Section 3: Spatial Data Organization (not used in this metadata)
Section 4: Coordinate System
Horizontal Coordinate Scheme:
Universal Transverse Mercator
UTM Zone Number:
15
Horizontal Datum:
NAD83
Horizontal Units:
meters
Vertical Datum:
Vertical Units:
Depth Datum:
Depth Units:
Section 5: Attributes
Overview:
Note: Major watershed names have been removed from this data set. Since watersheds have been combined or split in some situations, the major watershed name can no longer be accurately applied to some planning areas.
Names were created for the planning areas by planning partnerships and are also assigned a unique numeric identifier.
Detailed Citation:
Table Detail:
PLAN_NUMBER| Field Name | Valid Values | Definition | Definition Source |
|---|
| PLAN_NUMBER | - | Unique numeric identifier for each planning area. Corresponds to the numeric identifier in the Suggested Boundary Map. | |
| PLAN_NAME | - | The name that’s given to the watershed by the planning partnership. Designated at the time the group is approved for a planning grant. | |
| PLAN_START_YEAR | - | The year in which the BWSR board approved a planning grant for the boundary. | |
| STATUS | - | Whether the boundary is in planning or approved (areas that are neither will not appear in this layer). | |
| BOARD_APPROVAL_DATE | - | The date the plan was approved by the BWSR board. | |
| PLAN_RANGE | - | Date range of the age of the plan | |
| PLAN_WEBSITE | - | URL for website info about the plan | |
| LINK_TO_PLAN | - | URL for the actual written plan | |
Section 6: Distribution
Publisher:
MN Board of Water and Soil Resources
Publication Date:
03/14/2025
Contact Person Information:
Aaron Spence,
GIS Specialist
Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources
520 Lafayette Road
St. Paul,
MN
55155
Phone: 651-757-2655
Email: aaron.spence@state.mn.us
Distributor's Data Set Identifier:
Distribution Liability:
Ordering Instructions:
The layer may be downloaded from the BWSR website (see online linkage) or the MnGEO Geospatial Commons. Online Linkage: I AGREE
to the notice in "Distribution Liability" above. Clicking to agree will either begin the download process, link to a service, or provide more instructions. See "Ordering Instructions" above for details.
Section 7: Metadata Reference
Metadata Date:
03/14/2025
Contact Person Information:
Aaron Spence,
GIS Specialist
Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources
520 Lafayette Road
St. Paul,
MN
55155
Phone: 651-757-2655
Email: aaron.spence@state.mn.us
Metadata Standard Name:
Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines
Metadata Standard Version:
1.2