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AN APPLICATION OF GIS BASED NONPOINT SOURCE MODELING TO LITTLE MIAMI RIVER BASIN: PRACTICE AND EXPERIENCE USING BASINS
Citation:
Kshirsagar, S., P. Subramaniam, AND J A. Goodrich. AN APPLICATION OF GIS BASED NONPOINT SOURCE MODELING TO LITTLE MIAMI RIVER BASIN: PRACTICE AND EXPERIENCE USING BASINS. Presented at 2000 Ohio GIS Conf & Trade Show, Columbus, OH, 9/26-28/00.
Description:
Water quality has improved significantly in the Little Miami River Basin, OH, over the past few decades because of improvements in the treatment of municipal and industrial wastes. However, water quality modeling is necessary to assess the relative impacts of point and nonpoint sources on the basin area. BASINS v2.0 (Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources) is a multipurpose environmental analysis system developed by EPA;s Office of Water. It adopts an integrated approach to perform watershed evaluation, by linking water quality models with a GIS. BASINS integrates data such as (a) Water quality monitoring station summaries (USEPA), (b) Bacteria monitoring station summaries (USEPA), (c) Meteorological Data (NOAA), (d) Land uses (USGS), and (e) Point Source loadings (Permit Compliance System (PCS) sites and computed loadings). It links this integrated data with HSPF (nonpoint source model) and QUAL2E (stream water quality model). HSPF requires various input sources - stream data, landuse data, weather data, point source data, and default parameter data to perform a general water quality simulation. To set up BASINS for general water quality analysis, sufficient understanding of the input data requirements, time, resources, software/hardware, and available databases for monitoring needs is required. This paper discusses the issues faced and the solutions implemented in setting up and executing the BASINS model for the Little Miami River Basin.