Grant Award Year: 2020-2021
Principal Investigator:
- Christine Hatch, Geosciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst
- John Gartner, Geosciences
Research Description:
Rivers and the swath of land next to rivers are critically important for aquatic and riparian ecosystems and ecological processes, water resources, human infrastructure, and natural hazards. Several hydrologic and geomorphic processes—including flooding, erosion, deposition, river migration, bank failures, and landslides—create dynamic areas where water, sediment, nutrients, carbon, and pollutants are transported, sometimes gradually and sometimes catastrophically (Bierman et al., 2014). In 2019, Gartner et al. created a novel approach for delineating the area adjacent to a river that is likely to affect and be affected by river and floodplain processes, and called that area the river process corridor (RPC) (Gartner et al., 2019). They tested this delineating method in three river reaches in Northeastern U.S. and found the method to be successful at providing both an accurate assessment of potential active hazard areas and sensitive environmental areas, and that it also includes a margin of safety that many managers desire. This project proposes to apply the method to four entire sub-watersheds in the Deerfield River watershed in northwestern Massachusetts, that were delineated with a more complex method, in order to determine whether the method is truly accurate and easy to use in a region that does not have Federal Emergency Management Agency flood zones.
Summary Report
- Project Type: Annual Base Grant
- ProjectID: 2020MA006B
- Project Impact:
A research fellow at UMass applied the GIS-based method developed by Gartner et al. to several test watersheds and created maps showing the River Process Corridor. These maps were superimposed on other flood hazard maps such as the FEMA FIRM maps, or previously delineated Vermont SGAT method corridors (Vermont ANR, online) to allow for comparison. The Fellow mapped several specific locations known to be problematic or difficult for automated mappers, and/or where different mapping schemes varied a great deal. Finally, the Fellow supervised a team of undergraduate students with some GIS experience to test the usability of the model, troubleshoot potential issues, and make detailed metadata documents. The Fellow and students mapped the watershed used for example maps in the original method documentation, and all successfully reproduced the original maps. All shapefiles, layer packages, metadata documentation, and troubleshooting reports will be archived for public access on a permanent scholarworks page, and linked to the project page on the RiverSmart website (https://extension.umass.edu/riversmart). As map layers are developed and finalized, these are shared with the NALCC and North Atlantic Aquatic Connectivity Collaborative (https://streamcontinuity.org/naacc) for inclusion in their online mappers and databases. - Does this project relate to research, outreach and engagement, or education and training?
Education and Training -
Which of these USGS science priorities best aligns with this project: water observing; water availability; water prediction; water related emergencies and conflicts; or water-data infrastructure?
water related emergencies and conflicts -
Please list up to three keywords that are most relevant to this project
ecosystem management, ecosystem services valuation, water-risk assessment