You are here:
Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST) v1: Theoretical Documentation
Citation:
U.S. EPA. Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST) v1: Theoretical Documentation. U.S. EPA Office of Research and Development, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-13/151, 2013.
Impact/Purpose:
The objective of the Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST) is to serve as a public-domain, efficient, and user-friendly tool for local water resources managers and planners to screen a wide-range of potential water resources management options across their watershed or jurisdiction for cost-effectiveness as well as environmental and economic sustainability (Zoltay et al 2010). Examples of options that could be evaluated with the tool potentially include projects related to stormwater, water supply, wastewater and water-related resources such as low-impact development (LID) and land conservation. The tool is intended to aid in evaluating the environmental and economic costs, benefits, trade-offs and co-benefits of various management options. In addition, the tool is intended to facilitate the evaluation of LID and green infrastructure as alternative or complementary management options in projects proposed for State Revolving Funds (SRF). As of October 2010, SRF Sustainability Policy calls for integrated planning in the use of SRF resources as a means of improving the sustainability of infrastructure projects and the communities they serve. In addition, Congress mandated a 20% set-aside of SRF funding for a “Green Project Reserve” which includes green infrastructure and land conservation measures as eligible projects in meeting water quality goals. The target user group for the DST consists of local water resources managers, including New England municipal water works superintendents and their consultants.
Description:
The Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST) is a screening model that is spatially lumped with options for a daily or monthly time step. It is specifically focused on modeling the effect of management decisions on the watershed. The model considers water flows and does not consider water quality. The optimization of management options is solved using linear programming. The tool is intended to be used as a screening tool as part of an integrated watershed management process such as that described in EPA’s watershed planning handbook (EPA 2008).1 The objective of WMOST is to serve as a public-domain, efficient, and user-friendly tool for local water resources managers and planners to screen a wide-range of potential water resources management options across their watershed or jurisdiction for cost-effectiveness as well as environmental and economic sustainability (Zoltay et al., 2010). Examples of options that could be evaluated with the tool potentially include projects related to stormwater, water supply, wastewater and water-related resources such as low-impact development (LID) and land conservation. The tool is intended to aid in evaluating the environmental and economic costs, benefits, trade-offs and cobenefits of various management options. In addition, the tool is intended to facilitate the evaluation of LID and green infrastructure as alternative or complementary management options in projects proposed for State Revolving Funds (SRF). The target user group for WMOST consists of local water resources managers, including municipal water works superintendents and their consultants.