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AN INTEGRATIVE WATERSHED MODELING FRAMEWORK (IWMF) FOR ECOSYSTEM SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT AT THE WATERSHED SCALE
Citation:
MOHAMOUD, Y. M. AN INTEGRATIVE WATERSHED MODELING FRAMEWORK (IWMF) FOR ECOSYSTEM SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT AT THE WATERSHED SCALE. Presented at EPA Science Forum, Washington, DC, May 16 - 18, 2006.
Impact/Purpose:
The main objective of this research is to identify deficiencies in the current watershed modeling approaches and conduct research that makes the Hydrologic Simulation Program-Fortran (HSPF) more accurate, more efficient, and more applicable to the needs of the resource managers and decision makers. The ultimate goal is to have watershed models that can simulate the cumulative impacts of alternative development scenarios and present the risks associated with different scenarios under an adaptive management framework where scenarios impacts are tested, model results analyzed, lessons learned, and management decisions made through an iterative process.
Description:
The public's right to continued access and use of ecosystem services requires an evaluation of the environmental risks that are associated with activities such as urban development, agriculture, forestry, mining, water withdrawal, and dam construction. Human activities can cause hydrological alterations and other stressors that occur over time, interact with one another resulting in combined and cumulative environmental effects on the ecosystem. Assessing the combined environmental effects of human activities, such as urban development and dam construction, on downstream water availability, quality and demand and on channel morphology and biological integrity of aquatic ecosystems is a major challenge that affects the application of established assessment protocols such as the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) development process. One way to address the combined and the cumulative environmental effects of urban development and water resources development jointly is to use comprehensive watershed models that can simulate the interactions between multiple stressors. Many watershed models and modeling approaches are not adequately comprehensive and do not address changes in water availability resulting from reduced baseflow due to increased impervious cover or increased water withdrawal. This study presents a modeling approach or framework which would allow resource managers and decision makers to link upstream development activities, particularly urban development and water resources development, to downstream environmental effects. The proposed integrative watershed modeling framework (IWMF) is an iterative and adaptive watershed modeling approach that is suitable for evaluating combined environmental effects associated with different land and water development scenarios and for selection of specific development alternatives leading to sustainable use of ecosystem services. The proposed framework is based on the Hydrological Simulation Program- FORTRAN (HSPF) and has three main components: water availability (hydrological alterations), water quality (water quality alterations) and water demand (water allocation) simulation models.