Functional linkage of watersheds and streams: ArcGIS FLoWS tools

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Functional linkage of watersheds and streams
ArcGIS FLoWS tools

• David Theobald, John Norman, Erin Poston, Silvio
  Ferraz
• Natural Resource Ecology Lab, Dept of Recreation
  Tourism, Colorado State University
• Fort Collins, CO 80523 USA 26
  July 2005

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Project context

• Challenges of STARMAP (EPA STAR)
• Addressing science needs Clean Water Act
• Integrate science with states/tribes needs
• Assisting statisticians to test tenable
  hypotheses generated using understanding of
  ecological processes

Goal to find measures that more closely
represent our understanding of how ecological
processes are operating
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From watersheds/catchments as hierarchical,
overlapping regions
River continuum concept (Vannote et al. 1980)
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to network of catchments
Benda et al. BioScience 2004
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USGS NHD, NED
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• FLoWS v1 tools for ArcGIS v9.0
• Will migrate to v9.1

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Pre-processing segment contributing areas (SCAs)

• Automated delineation
• Inputs
• stream network (from USGS NHD 1100K)
• topography (USGS NED, 30 m)
• Process
• Grow contributing area away from segment until
  ridgeline
• Uses WATERSHED command

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Segments are linked to catchments

• 1 to 1 relationship
• Properties of the watershed can be linked to
  network for accumulation operation

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Landscape networks with Python

• Need to represent relationships between features
• Using graph theory, networks
• Retain tie to geometry of features
• Flow relationships table (like NHD, but
  flow-sorted!)
• Implementation in ArcGIS
• Geometric Networks (ESRI complicated, slow)
• Landscape Networks Open, simple, fast
• Began with VBA (1.5 years), moved to Python (2
  months)

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Selections

• Downstream

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Example Flow modification

• Deynesius and Nilsson, Science (1994) 77 of
  upper 1/3 of northern hemisphere rivers are
  strongly or moderately affected
• - F regulated/total channel length
• - R of VMAD (cumulative reservoir live,
  gross capacity)
• Network-based flow modification
• 1. Degree of modification to flow cumulative
  annual flow cum. dam max. storage
• Q Q-S
• 2. Proportion of modified to VMAD (natural)
  flow
• F Q/Q
• Collaboration with Aquatic ecologists (Poff,
  Merritt)

RCL
TCL
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Reservoirs

• 1. DEM
• 2. Slope
• 3. Flow dir.
• 4. Flow acc.
• 5. Hydro dist.

Dam shadow
High
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Example Coho salmon distances
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Example Coho salmon distances
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Example 2D stream in Virginia
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Example 2D stream in Virginia
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Example 2D stream in Virginia
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Example 2D stream in Virginia
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Next steps

• Increase range of applications
• Attach additional datasets to SCA database
• Land cover (urban, ag, natural)
• Historical, current, future housing density
• Indexing of National Inventory of Dams?
• From segments to geomorphological reaches,
  gradient
• Project/tool website
• www.nrel.colostate.edu/projects/starmap

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• Thanks!
• Comments? Questions?
• Funding/Disclaimer The work reported here was
  developed under the STAR Research Assistance
  Agreement CR-829095 awarded by the U.S.
  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to Colorado
  State University. This presentation has not been
  formally reviewed by EPA.  The views expressed
  here are solely those of the presenter and
  STARMAP, the Program (s)he represents. EPA does
  not endorse any products or commercial services
  mentioned in this presentation.
• FLoWS www.nrel.colostate.edu/projects/starmap
• davet_at_nrel.colostate.edu