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Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool: An approach for incorporating LID into integrated water management plans
Citation:
Detenbeck, N., V. Zoltay, A. Morrison, T. Garrigan, J. Leclair, I. Morin, A. Brown, M. Tenbrink, AND R. Abele. Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool: An approach for incorporating LID into integrated water management plans. International Low Impact Development Conference, Portland, ME, August 29 - 31, 2016.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation provides an overview of EPA's Watershed Management Optimization Support tool which facilitates cost-effective integrated water management by communities.
Description:
To assist communities in the evaluation of green infrastructure, low impact development, and land conservation practices as part of an Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has supported the development of the Watershed Management Optimization Support Tool (WMOST). WMOST is based on a recent integrated watershed management optimization model (Zoltay et al. 2010) that was created to allow water resource managers to evaluate a broad range of technical, economic, and policy management options within a watershed. This model includes evaluation of conservation of undeveloped lands for source water protection and infiltration of stormwater, green infrastructure stormwater best management practices (BMPs) to increase infiltration on developed lands, and other water-related management options in drinking water and wastewater programs. WMOST v1 and v2 are implemented with a user-friendly interface in MS Office Excel for data input and output display, supported by Visual Basic (VBA) coding with linear optimization accomplished through linkage to LP-solver. WMOST has been used by several communities to meet requirements under the Massachusetts Sustainable Water Management Initiative. US EPA has applied WMOST v1 or v2 to three case studies of New England communities and associated watersheds (Ipswich, Danvers/Middleton, and Halifax, MA). In each of these cases, WMOST identified the potential role of green infrastructure stormwater BMPs as part of the least-cost solution to meet community targets for restoring base flows, maintaining drinking water supplies over variable weather regimes, and reducing flooding costs. New components under development for release in WMOST v3 include water quality and climate change modules; the latter will contribute to robust decision making approaches.