Abstract
In order to maintain a proper balance between development pressure and water resources protection, and also to improve public participation, efficient tools and techniques for soil and water conservation projects are needed. This paper describes the development and application of a web-based watershed management spatial decision support system, WebWMPI. The WebWMPI uses the Watershed Management Priority Indices (WMPI) approach which is a prioritizing method for watershed management planning and it integrates land use/cover, hydrological data, soils, slope, roads, and other spatial data. The land is divided into three categories: Conservation Priority Index (CPI) land, Restoration Priority Index (RPI) land, and Stormwater Management Priority Index (SMPI) land. Within each category, spatial factors are rated based on their influence on water resources and critical areas can be identified for soil conservation, water quality protection and improvement. The WebWMPI has user-friendly client side graphical interfaces which enable the public to interactively run the server side Geographic Information System to evaluate different scenarios for watershed planning and management. The system was applied for Dry Run Creek watershed (Cedar Falls, Iowa, US) as a demonstration and it can be easily used in other watersheds to prioritize crucial areas and to increase public participation for soil and water conservation projects.
Highlights
It is well understood that clean water is one of the essential elements of sustainable development
This paper describes the development and application of a web-based watershed management spatial decision support system, WebWMPI
This study describes the development of a Web-based spatial decision support systems (SDSS), WebWMPI, which is based on the Watershed Management Priority Indices (WMPI) approach [15]
Summary
It is well understood that clean water is one of the essential elements of sustainable development. It was reported that 34% of them were threatened and 38% were impaired, which means any one of its assessed uses was not met. As water flows over the ground and along rivers, it can pick up nutrients, sediment, and other pollutants, which are transported to the outlet of the basin. These pollutants can negatively impact ecological processes within the watershed, as well as the receiving water body. Scientific watershed management is critical to protecting water resources and ecosystems. Decision makers can benefit from scientific and user friendly decision support systems (DSS) that allow them to better understand and evaluate alternative management approaches
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