Advancing watershed N management at the local level

Project Description

The objective of this proposal is to translate understanding of nitrogen sinks into an Environmental Spatial Decision Support System to improve the capacity of local decision makers in targeting Best Management Practices and planning efforts to areas with the greatest potential to affect watershed N export.

The stream reach ranking system will be translated into a pilot ESDSS that will be available online. The EDSS will be an interactive system where trained users will be able to define initial conditions, establish geographic parameters as inputs to the model, generate maps, manipulate maps, connect instantaneously from the maps to data, and repeat selected steps under different scenarios. By instantaneously linking maps to data, decision makers will better visualize and understand data relationships. Spatial statistical analysis and modeling provides tools to quantify spatial and temporal processes and generate "what if" scenarios. The graphical user interface (GUI) will be flexible so that an extension or NRCS professional decision maker with knowledge of GIS and BMPs could manipulate the entire suite of variables, change the model parameters, modify statistics, and change the display; whereas a decision maker with minimal experience will have limited control of the tool's parameters.

Pretests, observations during trainings, and post test will assess how the ESDSS shaped participants' perception of N contamination risks and ways to mitigate these risks within watersheds. The effects of a priori knowledge, profession, and participant experience will be evaluated on the perception of risks and management opportunities. Questions will focus on how familiar respondents are about terms relating to watersheds, riparian zones, estuarine eutrophication, local planning and BMPs. Experience-based demographic variables assessed in the pretest will be tenure of residency and level of participation in community-based activities. Participants will also be allowed to write in how they think the ESDSS could be improved. Repeated measures parametric, non-parametric, and contingency table statistics will be used to analyze the ordinal measures of perceptions between participants' pre-and post-training responses for different visualization approaches to the ESDSS.

The ESDSS will be assessed and refined through an iterative process with sequential feedback from four different audiences: students at ASU and URI, Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials (NEMO) professionals, Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) staff, and local decision makers from coastal communities in RI and CT.

The ESDSS GUI and visualization format will be improved and refined based upon the results of these assessments. Decision makers will have access to a system to evaluate existing and proposed policies and the potential impact on environmental resources. Through this process, the team will learn how to build more effective tools targeted at local decision makers.

ASU Project Staff

Associate Professor Elizabeth Wentz and Robert Edsall, University of Minnesota, will oversee this three year project. In addition, a Ph.D. level research associate will develop and test the tool.

Funding

This project is funded by the University of Rhode Island under agreement number 121807/0001542, from September 2007 through August 2010. The prime sponsor is the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) under Agency Project Number 2007-51130-03873.