The Watershed Services Program (WSP) provides geospatial and water quality data management, support and analyses to the Division of Environmental Assessment and Restoration (DEAR), DEP and the public through two sections: the Geographic Information System (GIS) section and the Watershed Information Network (WIN) section. WSP also manages or assists with geospatial and water quality data management or development initiatives for DEAR and DEP. 

The work of the GIS and WIN sections supports a wide range of DEP and DEAR activities. Those activities include, but are not limited to providing data of known quality for use in:

  • Development of water quality criteria, including Site Specific Alternative Criteria (SSAC)
  • Assessment of Florida surface waters for purposes of Impaired Waters Rule (IWR) determinations
  • Development of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs)
  • Development of Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs)
  • Development of Alternative Restoration Plans (ARPs)

GIS Section 

The GIS Section provides quality assurance review, editing, management, analysis and display of geospatial data to meet a range of needs for DEP, DEAR and the public. Among these are:

  • Developing, updating, and maintaining a range of geospatial data layers available through the DEP Geospatial Open Data platform.
  • Serving as the Florida Steward of the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) through a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)
  • Developing, editing, and providing quality assurance review and management of the Florida Hydrography Dataset (FHD)
  • Editing and managing the Land Use Land Cover (LULC) data for the Northwest Florida Water Management District (WMD) and the Suwannee River WMD, as well as maintaining a Statewide Land Use Land Cover layer of data from all WMDs.
  • Providing geospatial expertise and support to the WIN data repository

WIN Section 

The WIN Section implements Florida statutory requirements, DEP rule requirements, and U.S. EPA funding requirements for management of environmental non-regulatory data for the state through the WIN and Florida STORET data repositories.  This includes management of data provided by both internal (e.g., DEAR programs, Regional Operations Centers) and external (e.g., WMDs, counties, local governments, volunteer organizations).

WIN section staff upload data to the U.S. EPA Water Quality Exchange (WQX) per U.S. EPA 106 grant requirements. They also provide subject matter expertise to future development phases for the WIN data repository, and WIN-relevant projects, as well as to other data management initiatives for DEAR and DEP.

Watershed Services Program
Bob Martinez Center
2600 Blair Stone Road, MS 3526
Tallahassee, FL 32399-2400
WSP
Denise Miller
Program Administrator
850-245-8516
Denise.Miller@FloridaDEP.gov
GIS
Param Maharaj
Environmental Administrator
850-245-8551
Param.Maharaj@FloridaDEP.gov
WIN
Julie Zimmerman
Environmental Administrator
850-245-8508
Julie.M.Zimmerman@FloridaDEP.gov