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Landscape Influences on Water Quality and Biotic Integrity
Objective:
To provide the Office of Water with tools and models which will relate stream water quality and biotic integrity to the landscape and geophysical features of surrounding landscapes and to assess the validity of regional water quality criteria.
Approach:
Longitudinal measures of water chemistry and biological integrity are being collected in order to elucidate influences of landscape features (e.g., land cover, soils, hydrology) of the surrounding catchment on in-stream water quality. The resulting data will be employed in models to assess interactions between classes of landscape features and to evaluate the role of spatial scale and the interactions of landscape features on the assessment of stream integrity.
Why This Research Is Needed:
The Office of Water has proposed that spatial variations in geographic phenomena, as reflected in ecoregions, are a rational basis for developing meaningful water quality criteria. Thus, this project is an effort to develop a database that will test this proposal and will examine the influence of landscape features and their interactions on water quality features within three Omernik Level IV Ecoregions within Ohio (55b, 55d, and 55e).
Expected Outputs/Outcomes:
A series of reports for scientific literature that will relate landscape features based on high resolution hyperspectral imagery to in-stream water quality and biology that can be used to assess the risk to the environment. (See F.B. Daniel, et. al., 2005 J. Environ. Qual. Submitted.)
Contact: Bernie Daniel (daniel.bernie@epa.gov) (Cincinnati, OH)