Development of online tools to support GIS watershed analyses

Abstract

In 1996 there was a meeting in Tucson of hydrologists from every Forest Service region, as well as Forest Service research scientists engaged in watershed-related activities. This meeting was organized by the Stream Team (which has since been enveloped by the National Stream and Aquatic Ecology Center). The focus of the meeting was to identify tools that needed to be developed to support watershed management. One of the suggested tools was a GIS-based application that could run on the internet. At that time, federal websites were in their infancy, and the development of GIS tools for watershed analysis was only just beginning. Scientists at the Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) took this challenge to heart. In 1999, with support from the San Dimas Technology and Development Center, they introduced the first ever online interface to the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model to predict soil erosion for forest road segments and forest hillslopes disturbed by wildfire (Figure 7), as well as for forest management (Elliot 2004). These interfaces were quickly adapted by the Forest Service and other land management agencies.

Citation

Elliot, William J. 2016. Development of online tools to support GIS watershed analyses. StreamNotes, August 2016. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, National Stream and Aquatic Ecology Center. p. 8-10.