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A SMALL WATERSHED CHARACTERIZATION, CLASSIFICATION, AND ASSESSMENT FOR WEST VIRGINIA UTILIZING EMAP DESIGN AND TOOLS
Citation:
Detenbeck, N E., D. Cincotta, F A. Fulk, AND F H. McCormick. A SMALL WATERSHED CHARACTERIZATION, CLASSIFICATION, AND ASSESSMENT FOR WEST VIRGINIA UTILIZING EMAP DESIGN AND TOOLS. Presented at Using Science to Assess Environmental Vulnerability, Valley Forge, PA, May 12-15, 2003.
Description:
A multi-objective sampling design has been implemented through R-EMAP support of a cooperative agreement with the state of West Virginia. Goals of the project include: 1) development and testing of a temperature-adjusted fish IBI for the Central Appalachian Plateau and Western Alleghany Plateau ecoregions of West Virginia, 2) development of a watershed classification system and application to a probabilistic watershed-based sampling framework, and 3) prediction of stream thermal regime class from watershed characteristics. Watershed classification is based om empirically-derived kydrologic thresholds related to land-cover (watershed storage) and land-use (agriculture, mining, and urbaan/residential development). Watershed storage has been related to hydrologic regime and sensitivity to NPS. Incorporation of watershed classification into a probabilistic sampling design will allow WV not only to summarize ecological condition at the ecoregion scale based on the distribution of fish IBIs and habitat quality, but also to predict probability of impairment for other sites based on watershed characteristics.