How to efficiently remove tiny lines from a multi-line feature?

Question

Happy Friday everyone,

I have a multi-line shapefile which was clipped from NHDPlusFlowline feature class (picture below and attached)

https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/ngp/national-hydrography/nhdplus-high-resolution

The problem is there are so many tiny little lines together with the main canals. I want to find a good way to remove those small parts.

I tried using Query Builder with “"LengthKM" >= 0.3” but it actually filtered out some small parts that belong to the main canals too

Any tip to get this going? Thanks!

CanalSample.zip

CalvinHarmin_0-1757448389286.png

TungNg · Answer

Thank you Curtis! I wasn't aware of that. Let me look at the attribute table

curtvprice · Answer

Have you looked at the VAAs, with cumulative upstream area, arbolate sum, and more arcane things like LevelPathID? These VAA attributes are very useful sometimes when manipulating NHDPlus.

Also, the NHD now includes a scale attribute that can be used to select out tiny features you don't want when displaying at smaller scales. This is a new update to the NHD data model, and USGS would love some feedback if you find it useful (or not).

Not really a spatial analyst question so I am tagging Arc Hydro‌ as folks there may have more to add.

TungNg · Answer

The workaround that I do for now is to add a Water Body layer on top to hide all small segments outside of the main canals. Still looking for a better solution for this problem.