Proceedings of the 2007 Georgia Basin Puget Sound Research Conference
Session 6F: Modeling and Decision Support Tools: Applied Management Tools
Chair: Randal Taira
Hood Canal and Eastern Strait of Juan de Fuca Summer Chum Salmon Recovery Plan: The Hood Canal Coordinating Council Approach to Salmon Recovery Planning
The Hood Canal Coordinating Council (HCCC) is a coalition of three Counties and two Indian Tribes with a dual mission of protecting the water quality of Hood Canal and providing for the restoration and recovery of threatened Hood Canal salmon stocks. The HCCC pursued salmon recovery as part of Washington State’s response to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) listings of Hood Canal summer chum salmon and Puget Sound chinook. Recognizing the need to engage the land-use authorities (i.e., Counties), the HCCC developed a Plan that builds on a wealth of existing and in-progress works while focusing on specific actions in specific areas. Aspects of harvest and hatchery management have been in place in anticipation of the listing. Development of this recovery plan allowed the opportunity to focus on those aspects of land use, development and regulatory programs. County staffs were consulted regarding a review of current land use and regulatory programs. The Plan also developed a build-out analysis in an attempt to link current and projected development with important summer chum salmon habitat. The Plan further describes a land use permit tracking system intended to monitor the effectiveness of current regulatory programs to protect important habitats and allow for restoration opportunities. The Community Nearshore Restoration Program was also incorporated that focuses on salmon friendly marine nearshore habitats. The Plan is to be adopted as a Federal Recovery Plan.
Ground-Truthing the Habitat Inventory for the Fraser River Estuary: Habitat Status Report and Lessons Learned
The Fraser River Estuary Management Program (FREMP) is an intergovernmental partnership program for coordinated environmental management of the Fraser River estuary, one of the most significant aquatic ecosystems in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.
FREMP has developed a number of tools to manage the “living, working river”, including a habitat classification system that assigns colour-codes to intertidal and riparian areas on the basis of the relative values of their habitat features. The classifications are based on an inventory of all habitat types in the estuary, and guides prospective developers in selecting appropriate sites and design concepts prior to seeking approval of their projects. First mapped in the 1980s, the FREMP habitat inventory was updated in 2003 using an ecological features and functions’ approach to capture information on upland linkages. A comprehensive ArcView dataset and linked Access database was developed with over 12,000 habitat polygons.
In 2006, FREMP undertook a project to ground-truth and verify the habitat polygons with the BC Conservation Corps. The presentation will provide a habitat status report (including established data confidence levels and observations of invasive species), review project methodology and challenges, and identify lessons learned that may assist other field-checking and mapping projects.
Application of a Coastal Landform Classification GIS Database to Washington State Parks in the Puget Sound
A process-based coastal landform classification GIS database using existing data sources was developed for Washington’s Puget Sound shoreline. A geo-database was used to compile a wide variety of data sources for analysis, including historical and current aerial photographs (oblique and vertical) as well as information on topography, hydrology, slope stability, drift cells, coastal dynamics, and other relevant shore zone information such as sediment type and abundance. The classification breaks the shoreline into a nested hierarchy of segments that relate to the physical processes important in determining geomorphology and shape. The resulting classification distinguish between the beachforms and upland forms, including further distinctions such as anthropogenic modifications and whether they are depositional, stable or erosional These smaller features are further nested into beachform and upland form groups, which identify larger process-based geomorphic systems. The classification is a critical basis for understanding how different shoreline types are formed and how susceptible they are to change and various impacts. A case study application of the classification to Washington State Park shorelines demonstrates its utility as a planning tool for assessing the links between geomorphic processes and land forms and the ecological functions related to the wide diversity of marine shorelines found in the Puget Sound.
Modeling Potential Effects as a Management Tool for Washington’s State-owned Aquatic Lands
As proprietary manager of over 2.4 million acres of state-owned aquatic lands, Washington DNR is charged with ensuring environmental protection for the habitats managed as well as supporting their use for commerce and navigation; public use and access; the production of renewable resources; and income generation. To ensure that land management actions comply with the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), the agency is developing a Habitat Conservation Plan for fresh- and saltwater habitats utilizing a spatial database and model to predict effects on species and habitats.
This presentation will focus on the development of the Potential Effects model and its components, uncertainties associated with the model, integration of conservation strategies, and present some preliminary estimates of how DNR’s activities affect aquatic habitats.
An Interdisciplinary Cyber-Infrastructure for Multi-Scaled Coastal Zone Research
Over the next decade sophisticated cyber-infrastructure tools will provide coastal zone researchers with unparalleled access to computational modeling of the complex interactions between the physical system and the impacts of human dynamics. Rapid growth of computing resources and the advances in observational networks make this an inevitable component of future interdisciplinary coastal zone research. Our research in information system architecture encompasses tools that are built on metadata services that drive integration efforts and archive strategies. These services require an FGDC-compliant metadata document to accompany each data set. The use of an XML encoding scheme can be written, edited, and queried with simple desktop or on-line tools provided to a collaborative team of investigators. These data management tools use both push (proactive) and pull (reactive) technologies for the exchange of data. They have been designed, developed, and are currently in use by a number partnership research programs at the University of Washington. We have experienced a powerful synergy between modelers and observational sciences as a result of this work. This presentation reports on the recent advances and new perspectives in cyber-infrastructure implementation in support of computational earth science modeling for coastal zone research.
Integrated Modeling of Surface Water in WRIA 8: An Application of the Integrated Water Resource Modeling System (IWRMS)
The King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks (KCDNRP) and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed an integrated modeling and data management system called the Integrated Water Resources Modeling System (IWRMS). The IWRMS provides the KCDNRP with a new capability in which integrated modeling can be performed to provide scientific support for studies and planning and policy decisions. The IWRMS is an integrated suite of tools with components for problem conception, data harvesting, integrating disparate computational models, central data storage, distributed computing, and ports to visualization and analysis tools. In this paper we describe the process of implementing the IWRMS to perform an integrated modeling assessment of surface water in Water Resource Inventory Area 8 (WRIA 8). Components modeled include WRIA 8 watersheds, Lake Sammamish, Sammamish River, and Lake Washington. Details on how the hardware and software components were applied are provided along with a discussion on challenges encountered and potential next steps for applications and development.