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South Platte River Basin Data Browser Report
Citation:
Guy, R. K., K. G. Boykin, W. G. KEPNER, AND J. M. McCarthy. South Platte River Basin Data Browser Report. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R-12/001, 2012.
Impact/Purpose:
Evaluating connectivity and ecosystem services and projecting land development within river basins is a critical component to contemporary natural resource management. Understanding base environmental conditions allows managers to evaluate forecasts concerning outcomes of alternative future land-use scenarios. Spatial datasets and land-use change scenarios at the river basin scale are a necessary tool for conducting such analyses. We collected datasets that were freely available, and organized them into an online data browser for access in order to conduct habitat, hydrological modeling, and conservation assessments.
Description:
The purpose of this data browser is to provide a spatial toolkit that delivers primary data that can be used for primary input information for assessments related to environmental endpoints, e.g. surface water hydrology and habitat mapping, related to ecosystem services. A necessary component in these landscape scale analyses is a contemporary land cover dataset and the ancillary spatial coverages which provide a baseline for subsequent habitat and hydrologic modeling, and conservation assessments. Thus, the content of this site can be used as the basis for landscape-scale assessments of ecological characteristics of aquatic ecosystems and impacts from land use and water quality management. The extent of the datasets include all sub-watersheds of the South Platte River Basin (HUC 101900) that fall within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 8 states of Colorado and Wyoming and a portion of western Nebraska in Region 7. The South Platte watershed contains many rapidly growing cities, each with increasing pressures on the natural environment and stressors on aquatic ecosystems due to land use change and water development. With projected population growth in excess of 50% by 2050, the need for data and best available science for environmental decision-making is critical to maintaining the integrity of the waters within the South Platte River Basin.
URLs/Downloads:
KEPNER 11-102 FINAL REPORT_SOUTH PLATTE.PDF (PDF, NA pp, 1911 KB, about PDF)South Platte River Basin Data Brower Report
