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GreatLakesTributaryModelingProgramWeb‐basedSedimentTransportToolsTrainingFactSheet
The Great Lakes Tributary Modeling Program
under the 516(e) Authority enables the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers to develop sediment transport
models to assist state and local agencies with
planning and implementation of measures for soil
conservation and nonpoint source pollution
prevention. These models can be developed for all
tributaries to the Great Lakes that discharge to
federal navigation channels and Areas of Concern
(AOC’s). The ultimate goal of the program is to
reduce the loading of sediment and pollutants to tributaries in order to enhance Great Lakes water
quality, help delist Great Lakes AOC’s, and reduce the need for navigation dredging.
In addition to the sediment transport models that we have developed in the past, Buffalo District is
currently providing training to all those that have an interest in sediment transport and have a hand in
watershed planning. The goal of the training is to teach participants how to use web‐based sediment
transport tools to better understand sediment issues and make informed decisions within their
watersheds. These are typically one day workshops that are offered to Soil and Water Conservation
Districts, state and local agencies, conservation groups, universities, and individuals in the agricultural
industry. A great benefit of these trainings is that they bring diverse groups of people together to help
solve sediment transport issues. Typically these workshops only require the use of small computer labs
with internet access, so we have the flexibility to coordinate these trainings very easily.
The web‐based sediment tools that we offer training for include:
Digital Watershed
High Impact Targeting (HIT)
Long‐Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment Low Impact Development (L‐THIA LID)
Web‐based Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP)
As a preventative measure to reducing the need for costly dredging and delisting AOC’s, the Great Lake
Tributary Modeling Program is 100% federally funded, and is one of the only programs that investigate
the prevention of sedimentation issues. For more information regarding these web‐based sediment
transport tools, or to schedule a training session, please contact Brent LaSpada, the 516(e) Buffalo
District Program Manager:
Phone: 716‐879‐4446
Email: [email protected]
1405 S. Harrison Rd.
101 Manly Miles Building
East Lansing, MI 48823-5243
INSTITUTE OF WATER RESEARCH
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
Many of the programs being developed by the Institute are evolving into the National
Resources Spatial Decision Support System to allow users to view any watershed in the
continental United States. Called DIGITAL WATERSHED (DW), the system allows users to
access an area by state, address, or watershed. A number of tools are incorporated into
the program including a user-friendly adaptation of the EPA Basins tool, direct linkage of
the selected watershed to rectified aerial photography through Google Earth, and
automatic forwarding of a delineated watershed to a hydrologic model that computes
runoff, peak flow and associated nonpoint source pollution.
The complexity and urgency of the world's environmental problems are going to be
overwhelming if we don’t do something effective to improve our collective abilities to deal
with complex and rapid change of our environment.
Here at the INSTITUTE OF WATER RESEARCH, we are building an environmental software
system using the distributed computing technologies to build our collective abilities. To
create a system to record patterns at different scales and understand different processes
that shape these patterns is no easy task but it can be done if we aim high and act
incrementally. This software will continue to grow with the ideal of once developed; new
knowledge of our planet in the form of databases and models can be integrated into the
system. We hope that this system will become part of our national environmental
computing infrastructure and will also be able to answer questions about our
environment based on information entered.
Since the watershed is considered to be the basic unit for the environment, we have
developed the online digital watershed website as our starting point, which is designed to
provide both a centralized information repository and an online computing center for
watersheds in the United States. This site is based on the comprehensive database of 8-
digit watersheds for the whole continent of the United States, which is included in the EPA
BASINS system. The database contains all regulated facilities, river network, DEM, state
soil and other data layers. The digital watershed site is interconnected with Michigan's local
level watershed information system by the scaling function. You can access the Michigan's
local level watershed information system at http://www.hydra.iwr.msu.edu/water/.
DIGITAL WATERSHED
Please direct questions and
comments to Yi Shi.
Phone: 517-353-3742
Fax: 517-353-1812
Website: www.iwr.msu.edu
Check Digital Watershed out at: http://iwr.msu.edu/dw
1405 S. Harrison Rd.
101 Manly Miles Building
East Lansing, MI 48823-5243
INSTITUTE OF WATER RESEARCH
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
HIT stands for HIGH IMPACT TARGETING. It is a web-based decision support tool
for multi-scale prioritization of agricultural areas contributing sediment to the
Great Lakes and their tributaries. HIT combines an erosion model (RUSLE -
Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation1) and a sediment delivery model (SEDMOD -
Spatially Explicit Delivery Model2) to calculate annual erosion and sediment loading
to streams. This combination yields two outputs: field-scale maps identifying areas
at risk for erosion and sediment loading, and tonnage estimates for erosion and
sediment loading at watershed scales. This on-line tool allows users to interact with
these data spatially, and evaluate the potential impacts of best management
practices (BMPs) on selected watersheds.
HIT’s maps of erosion and sediment loading risk are displayed over a Microsoft
Bing Maps backdrop, allowing users to evaluate HIT’s estimates over high
resolution aerial photography in 2D and 3D, and through low-elevation Bird’s Eye
photography (where available). Users can also generate watershed-scale priority maps of BMP cost-effectiveness to aid in the development of watershed
management plans. HIT data, along with detailed metadata, is downloadable for use
in desktop GIS for more in-depth spatial analysis.
HIT’s development was funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the
United Stated Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service.
HIGH IMPACT TARGETING
Please direct questions and
comments to Glenn O’Neil.
517-353-8587
HIT
Check HIT out at: http://iwr.msu.edu/hit2
Phone: 517-353-3742
Fax: 517-353-1812
Website: www.iwr.msu.edu
Introduction to Long-Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment Low Impact Development (L-THIA LID) Model
Larry Theller (E-Mail: [email protected]) and Bernard Engel (E-Mail: [email protected]) Purdue University
https://engineering.purdue.edu/~lthia/LID
Purpose: Low Impact Development (LID) practices aim to
reduce the impacts of stormwater and pollutants from land
development. The goal of LID is to maintain, as closely as
possible, the predevelopment hydrologic regime for new
developments or move toward the original hydrologic regime
in existing urban areas.
L-THIA LID is an easy to use screening tool that evaluates
the benefits of LID practices. The Long-Term Hydrologic
Impact Assessment (L-THIA) model estimates the average
annual runoff and pollutant loads for land use configurations
based on more than 30 years of daily precipitation data
combined with soils and land use data for an area.
It estimates long-term average annual runoff for land use
and soil combinations, based on actual long-term climate data
for that area. By using many years of climate data in the
analysis, L-THIA focuses on the average impact, rather than
an extreme year or storm.
The model produces runoff depth and volume along with
nonpoint source pollution loading of the area.
Key Features:
All versions model runoff and 14 nonpoint source pollution types in surface waters.
An overview/screening model. Identifies need for more detailed modeling.
Does not require detailed data input.
Provides “what if” alternatives evaluation scenarios.
Provides description of runoff and pollutant loads in tabular form, as well as graphical representations.
Significance: As a quick and easy-to-use approach, L-
THIA's results can be used to generate community awareness
of potential long-term problems and to support planning aimed
at minimizing disturbance of critical areas. L-THIA is an ideal
tool to assist in the evaluation of potential effects of land use
change and to identify the best location of a particular land use
so as to have minimum impact on a community's natural
environment.
FOR FURTHER READING:
Tutorials and references: https://engineering.purdue.edu/~lthia/LID/tutorial
Link: https://engineering.purdue.edu/~lthia/LID
Copyright 2012 Purdue University
L-THIA provides relative estimates of change of runoff and nonpoint source pollutants due to
land use change.
Difference in relative runoff due to land use differences.
The L-THIA LID model consists of two screening levels for the LID approach.
Basic screening allows the users to adjust the percent of imperviousness for
particular landuses. Lot-level screening consists of a suite of LID practices such as
bio-retention (rain gardens), porous pavement, narrowing impervious surfaces
(streets, sidewalks and driveways) and vegetated rooftops. These practices intercept,
redirect, and slow the movement of runoff and pollutants moving through a
watershed.
A Low-Impact Development web-based Spreadsheet version of LTHIA is
available at https://engineering.purdue.edu/~lthia/LID.
TheWaterErosionPredictionProject(WEPP)ModelOnlineGeographicInformationSystems(GIS)Interface The WEPP online GIS Interface uses the open layers software to assist in setting up WEPP watershed simulations. The online version of WEPP is primarily used for small scale watersheds typically within agricultural settings to determine the channel network, delineate the watershed and determine flow paths within the watershed. It is applicable at the field scale with input from climate, management, soil and topography. The WEPP model is used to predict soil loss and runoff from the watershed.
The WEPP model can be located at http://milford.nserl.purdue.edu/ol/wepp2/