Grantee Research Project Results
1998 Progress Report: Impact of Social Systems on Ecology and Hydrology in Urban-Rural Watersheds: Integration for Restoration
EPA Grant Number: R825792Title: Impact of Social Systems on Ecology and Hydrology in Urban-Rural Watersheds: Integration for Restoration
Investigators: Pickett, S.T.A. , Zipperer, W. C. , Grove, J. M. , Carerra, J. M. , Band, L. R. , Burch, W. R. , Pouyat, R. V. , Foresman, Timothy W.
Institution: Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies , Yale University , University of Maryland - Baltimore County , University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Current Institution: Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies , USDA , University of Maryland - Baltimore County , University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , Yale University
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: June 1, 1998 through May 31, 2001 (Extended to September 30, 2001)
Project Period Covered by this Report: June 1, 1998 through May 31, 1999
Project Amount: $999,932
RFA: Water and Watersheds Research (1997) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Watersheds , Water
Objective:
To provide decision makers with options to ameliorate water quality, this research integrates social, ecological, and hydrologic processes. First, we will develop a new hydro-ecological model that integrates key social drivers at various scales. The model will incorporate spatial heterogeneity, land uses, and ecological structure of watersheds in urban areas. We will test whether social processes affect watershed dynamics and water quality, and whether such effects act directly through pollution, or indirectly through the ecological features of the watershed. Second we will develop the model into a decision making tool by interacting with urban communities and institutions. Such interactions will insure that the model can be used to evaluate the hydrological and ecological effects of different scenarios of social and land use change.Progress Summary:
This project operates with the complementary Baltimore Long-Term Ecological Research program and together the two projects constitute the Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES).In collaboration with city and county agencies and the USGS, we have selected four small watersheds for monitoring flow and pollution loadings. The 17,000 ha Gwynns Falls watershed (GFW) has been divided into upper and lower reaches for comparison.
Adaptation and merging of existing hydrological models with complementary strengths is underway. The HSPF model has been parameterized and calibrated for the upper GFW, and the water budget run for 1973, 1980, and 1990 conditions. The nitrogen budget for this same reach has been parameterized. The complementary model, RHESSys has been modified to incorporate road networks and storm sewers, and initially calibrated for a 19 km2 subcatchment.
Workshops have been conducted with social scientists from BES and elsewhere to develop social modules for the Patuxent Landscape Model (a Water and Watersheds project), as well as our other hydrological models.
We have a cooperative agreement with the Natural Resources Conservation Service for a high resolution survey of the soils of the Gwynns Falls watershed, including both urban and rural sites. Studies of the leaching of nutrients and nutrient processing in soils, have been started in four sets of permanent plots ranging from rural to medium density urban sites.
Vegetation patches covered by trees have been assessed throughout the GFW, and a sample of 80 patches has been inventoried. Permanent plots have been established and assessed to document plant population and community dynamics, and the contribution of vegetation to ecosystem processes and to nutrient and sediment loading in the watershed.
Demographic variables and indicators of social structure are being synthesized from US Census data at the block group level throughout the GFW. These data will be apportioned within subcatchments to assess how formal and informal social institutions, and behaviors of groups of households affect watershed structure and function. A novel cluster analysis and household survey are being developed to evaluate how resource use differs among neighborhoods and subcatchments of the GFW, and how it relates to hydrological and ecological processes within those areas and downstream.
In order to develop models that will be useful to citizens, policy makers, and managers in the Baltimore region, we are conducting interviews and meetings with relevant people and groups. Interactions have focused to date on the Baltimore City Department of Public Works, the Baltimore County Department of Environmental Protection and Resource Management, the Gwynns Falls, Jones Falls, and Herring Run Watershed Associations, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the Maryland Department of the Environment, the Patapsco/Back River Tributary Strategy Team, the Baltimore Metropolitan Council, the Neighborhood Design Center, the Revitalizing Baltimore project partnership, and other organizations. The Parks & People Foundation has hired a staff person to help facilitate community interactions. A participatory action research approach characterizes our project so that, to the extent possible, we can assure that data of relevance to residents of the metropolitan region are collected and synthesized in our project models. Our project co-sponsored a workshop of nearly 80 people entitled Tools for Urban Watershed Protection. Joining the Parks & People Foundation and the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in delivering this workshop were several organizations including the Environmental Law Institute, The National Wildlife Federation, American Forests, federal, state, and local governments, and Baltimore's three community-based watershed associations. The workshop introduced the various policy and program tools available for urban watershed restoration, and allowed the organizations participating to share their initiatives underway.
Future Activities:
Our hydrological models will be extended to the more intensively urbanized lower Gwynns Falls watershed, and calibration based on a novel integrated cover analysis combining social and ecological structures with the more traditional land use/land cover. Comparison of the water budget predictions of HSPF and RHESSys for the subcatchment will be conducted. An upcoming workshop will further develop the social process modules to be used with our evolving, integrated hydro-ecological models. Soil survey and analysis of the vertical structure and leaf area of vegetation across the urban-rural gradient will begin in 1999. Formalized workshops with user groups, and an organizational analysis of the potential users of environmental information will be conducted to assure that our network for data sharing and model construction and use is most effective. A workshop on the civil infrastructure for transporting water in the metropolitan area will be conducted to insure that our understanding of the built component of the system is parallel to that we are developing in hydrology, social science, and ecology.Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 237 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
Patch dynamics, Invasive species, Erosion, Storm water., RFA, Scientific Discipline, Water, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Hydrology, Ecosystem/Assessment/Indicators, Ecosystem Protection, Restoration, Ecological Risk Assessment, Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration, ecological effects, ecological exposure, rural watersheds, impact of social system, biodiversity, community involvement, watersheds, decision making, urban watersheds, restoration strategies, ecological recovery, aquatic ecosystems, social resistance, water quality, ecological impact, public policy, spatial analysis, ecosystem response , land use, watershed restorationProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.