Software and Decision Tools

Years of experience have placed FORT scientists in the unique position of being able to apply their expertise in developing innovative and important natural resource management tools. In use around the world, these software and modeling products are available for download only from FORT’s Web site. Please be sure your system requirements match or exceed those described for each product (click the linked product name for details).

 Black Canyon of the Gunnison Decision Support System
This is a macro-embedded EXCEL program that calculates and displays indicators representing valued characteristics or processes in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park based on input of daily flows of the Gunnison River. The decision support system is structured to compare as many as eight alternative flow regimes, where each alternative is represented by a daily sequence of at least 20 calendar years of streamflow. Example input files are provided with the software.
 

 Blossom Statistical Software
Blossom is an interactive program for making statistical comparisons with distance-function based permutation tests and for testing parameters estimated in linear models with permutation procedures.
 

 CloseTest
CloseTest is a Windows program for testing capture-recapture data for closure, where closure means no individuals were added to or lost from the population of interest over the sampling period. Test statistics are computed using the closure test presented in Stanley and Burnham.
 

 Delaware River Decision Support System
The Delaware River Decision Support System (DRDSS) translates changes in hydrology (resulting from different reservoir operating and water allocation rules) into changes to fish habitat, water temperature, reservoir storage and spills, out-of-basin water exports, and downstream delivery requirements.
 

 Habitat Evaluation Procedures
Habitat evaluation procedures, version 2.2
 

 Habitat Suitability Index
The HSI software is a system of programs that uses mathematical models to compute an HSI value for selected species from field measurements of habitat variables.
 

 Instream Flow Incremental Methodology
The Instream Flow Incremental Methodology is a framework for approaching various issues related to developing an instream flow policy that incorporates multiple or variable flow rules to meet the needs of the aquatic ecosystem while considering habitat-flow relationships, timing of flow events, institutional arrangements, and water supply.
 

 Legal Institutional Analysis Model
The Legal-Institutional Analysis Model (LIAM) was designed to accomplish three goals: (1) plan for participation in a negotiation, (2) predict organizational behavior, and (3) examine likely negotiation strategies.
 

 Moist Soil Management Advisor
The Moist-Soil Management Advisor (MSMA) software provides a tool to assist wetland managers in the development of annual management plans for a moist-soil complex composed of several individual units.
 

 National Hydrological Integrity Assessment Process
The National Hydrologic Assessment Tool (NATHAT) is based on a hydrologic classification of streams by Poff (1996) involving 420 gaging stations across the contiguous United States. If you have daily and peak (optional) streamflow data for a period of record, you can use NATHAT to: 1. Establish a hydrologic baseline (reference time period); 2. Establish environmental flow standards, and; 3. Evaluate past and proposed hydrologic modifications.
 

 New Jersey Hydrologic Tools (NJHAT and NJSCT)
The New Jersey Hydrologic Assessment Tool (NJHAT) is used to (1) establish a hydrologic baseline (reference time period), (2) establish environmental flow standards, and (3) evaluate past and proposed hydrologic modifications of streams in New Jersey. It accomplishes this by using flow statistics, trend analysis, and ecologically relevant indices that address the five major components of the flow regime (magnitude, frequency, duration, timing, and rate of change) via 10 nonredundant indices. The New Jersey Stream Classification Tool (NJSCT) is used to classify stream reaches that were not classified during the initial classification of streams in New Jersey.
 

 Physical Habitat Assessment Model (PHABSIM)
This set of programs is designed to predict microhabitat conditions in rivers as a function of streamflow and the relative suitability of those microhabitat conditions to aquatic life. Updated in 2012 for Windows 7.
 

 Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling Package for VisTrails (SAHM: VisTrails)
The Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling Package for VisTrails is used to create habitat models both for endangered species and invasive species, including forecasting where invasives are likely to spread. The code provides a significant capability to run, in a consistent and repeatable manner, five different habitat models (Maxent, Boosted Regression Trees, Logistic Regression, Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines, and Random Forest) and produces an ensemble result from all model techniques selected for a single run.
 

 SALMOD
SALMOD is a computer model that simulates the dynamics of freshwater salmonid populations. Developed and used for the Trinity River, California, chinook salmon evaluation, SALMOD has wide applicability for freshwater habitat-limited salmonid populations.
 

 Seed Yield Estimation
The seed yield estimation program is designed to aid managers in estimating seed production in moist-soil impoundments.
 

 System Impact Assessment Model
SIAM is a suite of models for the Klamath River in northern California. SIAM integrates a water quantity model (MODSIM), a water quality model (HEC-5Q), and a fish production model (SALMOD), to aid the evaluation of water management alternatives.
 

 Stream Network Temperature Model
SNTEMP predicts the water temperature in streams and rivers from data describing the stream's geometry, meteorology, and hydrology. It handles a dendritic network of streams through time and space.
 

 Time Series Library
TSLIB programs provide for data entry, analysis, and display of daily or monthly flow or habitat values. Some programs are useful for integrating microhabitat and macrohabitat, and some are of value in the analysis of water operations systems.