The municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) receiving waters are hydrologically connected waterways that receive stormwater discharges from the City's MS4. Whether a waterway is considered a MS4 receiving water is determined by the feature's characteristics, such as size and presence of flow, its presence in the National Hydrologic Dataset (NHD), and its connection to other receiving waters. The MS4 receiving waters can be used for a range of tasks required for the City's MS4 permit, including the delineation of the MS4 service area, identification of MS4 outfalls, selection of dry weather screening sites, and other elements. MS4 receiving waters ARE NOT intended to be used as regulatory "waters of the U.S."

This dataset was developed from the 2017 planimetric data of water surfaces (PLAN_Hydro_Surfaces) from the City of Virginia Beach, wetland extents from the National Wetland Inventory (NWI), ditch and canal information from the City of Virginia Beach, and data from the National Hydrologic Dataset (downloaded in March 2017).

The dataset of waterbodies was developed by removing areas from the PLAN_Hydro_Surfaces dataset with a feature code (FCODE) corresponding to wetlands, bay, or ocean. From the NWI dataset, a definition query was used to select only Estuarine and Marine Wetlands, Freshwater Emergent Wetlands, and Freshwater Forested/Shrub Wetlands. Once the definition queries were established, the water surfaces and wetland features were merged.

The initial line dataset was developed from NHD flowlines (canal/ditch, coastline, connector, and stream/river), the City's ditch file (roadside ditches and privately-owned ditches were removed), a line created based on aerial image, or the stormwater culverts. The initial line dataset was compared with GIS data of the City's stormwater infrastructure and site plans to assess the hydrologic connectivity of various segments with downstream waterways. The initial line dataset has been buffered at distance of 2ft on each side of the lines creating a 4ft wide polygon representing those lines.

The MS4 receiving waters will be updated regularly as additional data is known.