Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
determine the status of the changes underway within the watershed. In 2005, the
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service
(NRCS) entered into a five year agreement with the Geographic Information
Science and Applied Geography (GISAG) Research Center at the Department of
Geography and Planning at the University of Toledo, Ohio.
The work performed assists NRCS in undertaking sub-watershed rapid resource
assessments, watershed and area planning, farm conservation planning, and delivery
of conservation technical assistance and conservation cost-share programs authorized
by the 2002 Farm Bill. The tasks undertaken with this project consists of: annually
determining land cover and crop rotations via remote sensing techniques; combining
Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan data layers to establish Maumee Watershed Project
Area GIS database; and establishing a Maumee Watershed Project GIS Website to
provide educational and informational outreach with other project partners, resource
managers, and the general public.
The Western Lake Erie Basin has been identified by NRCS as a major contributor
of non-point source pollution into Lake Erie. In 2005, NRCS developed a plan to use
Rapid Resource Assessments, Area Wide Planning, and acceleration of USDA Farm
Bill programs to address the resource concerns for the Western Basin of Lake Erie,
and contributing watersheds including the Maumee, Portage, and Ottawa Rivers.
This 10-year study primarily addresses land use/cover changes, conservation tillage
practices, and water quality monitoring. A secondary element of this plan is to deve-
lop a basin wide GIS (Geographic Information System) to aid in watershed planning
projects and public outreach. Nelson and Weschler's (
1998
) study suggested that
the Maumee River watershed might not be ready for basin wide collaboration on
watershed planning, but with the implementation of a GIS-based institutional atlas,
the local and regional organizations and agencies with interests in watershed planning
could be moving in the right direction towards integration.
The watershed management approach has emerged as a holistic and integral way
of research, analysis and decision-making at a watershed scale (Montgomery et al.
1995
; Perciasepe
1994
; Voinov and Costanza
1999
). Initially oriented toward the
control of water supply and use, it has shifted to include a concern for water quality
and the combined effects of land use in the drainage basin, particularly since non-
point pollution has overtaken point-source pollution as a primary concern as a cause
of impairment (Nelson and Weschler
1998
). By relating water quality and land use
concerns, a link is created between science and planning, thereby connecting all
stakeholders, community leaders, agency administrators, and concerned citizens
in the watershed. Basin-wide collaborations can provide the expertise, scientific
backing, moral support, and political leadership necessary to implement regional
plans. GIS interfaced hydrological models are considered as a major tool for surface
water management at a watershed scale because they are capable of presenting the
relationship between the spatial and hydrological features of the watershed in an
efficient way (Al-Abed et al.
2005
).
GIS is a general-purpose technology for handling geographic data in digital
form (McKinney and Cai
2002
). GIS has the ability to combine physical features,
political and administrative jurisdictions, and organizational missions in order to
make sound recommendations or decisions for the entire watershed. The advances
