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WMOST: A tool for assessing cost-benefits of watershed management decisions affecting community resilience under varying climate regimes.
Citation:
Detenbeck, N., V. Zoltay, A. Morrison, T. Garrigan, J. Leclair, R. Abele, AND M. Tenbrink. WMOST: A tool for assessing cost-benefits of watershed management decisions affecting community resilience under varying climate regimes. American Water Resources Association (AWRA) Summer Specialty Conference: Climate Change Adaptation, New Orleans, LA, June 15 - 17, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation will provide an overview of WMOST Versions 1 and 2. The Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST v.1) was released by the US Environmental Protection Agency in December 2013 (http://www2.epa.gov/exposure-assessment-models/wmost-10-download-page. WMOST is intended to be used as a screening tool as part of an integrated watershed management process, considering both current and future land-use and climate scenarios.
Description:
The Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST v.1) was released by the US Environmental Protection Agency in December 2013(http://www2.epa.gov/exposure-assessment-models/wmost-10-download-page). The objective of WMOST is to serve as a public-domain screening toolthat is efficient and user-friendly for local water resources managers and planners. WMOST is intended to be used as part of an integrated watershedmanagement process, considering both current and future land-use and climate scenarios. The tool allows users to screen a wide-range of potential waterresources management options across their watershed or jurisdiction for cost-effectiveness as well as environmental and economic sustainability. Examples of options that can be evaluated with the tool include projects related to stormwater, water supply, wastewater and water-relatedresources 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 under both current and future climate regimes. In addition, the tool can facilitate theevaluation of low impact development and green infrastructure as alternative or complementary management options. Version 1 of WMOST focused onbalancing human and aquatic life needs for water during critical low-flow periods. Version 2 of WMOST, scheduled to be released in spring of 2015, willinclude new modules to automate import of regional hydrology data, pre-process inputs to evaluate potential effectiveness of green infrastructurestormwater BMPs in moderating peak and low flows, evaluate flooding risks and costs, and assess the robustness of optimal management solutions acrossa range of climate scenarios.