Watershed AnalysisUsing WEPP Technology
For the Clear Creek Restoration Project
Bill Elliot & Ina Sue MillerRocky Mountain Research Station
International ESRI User ConferenceJuly 10-14, 2017San Diego, CA
•An overview of our approach to analyzing the watershed impacts of the propose actions on the Clear Creek Restoration Project
•Accessing the GeoWEPP and ArcMap files generated during the analysis
•Evaluating erosion on an individual treatment
What we are presenting
Methods – An overview •FlamMap
-LANDFIRE DATABASE
-FireFamilyPlus
•GeoWEPP and Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP)
-Rapid Response Erosion Database (RRED)
FlamMap Burn
Severity mapArcMapGeoWEPPRRED
DatabaseLANDFIRE/
FireFamilyPlus
8 Proposed Treatments
647 Treatment Units
5600 ha (13,800 acres)
Within an 18,000-ha(44,000-acre) watershed
What were we given?
FlamMap analysis
Simulated model for current fuel load conditions – LANDFIRE Database and FireFamilyPlus
Note: Only low and unburned flame lengths
Vaillant, N.M., Ager, A.A., Anderson, J. 2013
Note: The highest intensity fires were on the ridge tops
Forest Erosion modeling with WEPP
Climate data
Climate forecast FS WEPP Database Land use/management
FS WEPP Database Soil parameters
GeoWEPP
Erosion maps
Treatment/burn severity raster
Land cover data Soil data
Rapid ResponseErosion Database (RRED)
DEM
Slope
Adapted from Miller, ME, 2017
Data prep for WEPP modeling•GIS data from the Rapid Response Erosion Database – RRED
•Input includes: - Personal raster (FlamMap)-Area of choice-Selection of past soil burn severity raster (1984-2014)
FlamMap Burn
Severity mapArcMapGeoWEPPRRED
Database
Data prep for WEPP modeling
• Divide area into 40 smaller watersheds with Fire ArcToolbox (Miller, ME, 2016)
• Collected GIS data from the Rapid Response Erosion Database – RRED- Input includes:
- Personal raster (FlamMap)- Area of choice- Selection of past soil burn severity raster (1984-2014)
- Output includes:- DEM- Soils raster- Land cover raster
Estimated erosion with GeoWEPP for:
- the FlamMap intensities- the proposed
treatments for every treatment unit polygon
- 280 simulationsUse GIS tools to extract GeoWEPP erosion within the treatment unit area
Erosion estimate map – tractor logging
Predicted erosion ratesTreatment Proposed Area
(ha)Estimated Erosion
Rate (Mg/ha)
Wildfire under Current Conditions 3500 4.56
Wildfire following fuel treatments 3500 0.047
Undisturbed Forest 3500 0.22
Pre-commercial Thin, Tractor 1300 0.86
Pre-commercial Thin, Skyline 400 0.44
Regeneration, Tractor 675 0.93
Regeneration, Skyline 1000 0.49
Improvement, Tractor 25 0.73
Improvement, Skyline 110 0.29
Prescribed Fire, Broadcast Burn 360 1.24
Prescribed Fire, Jackpot Burn 200 1.89
Overall watershed summary
Source Frequency of Disturbance
(years)
Year of Disturbance (Mg/km2)
Average Annual
(Mg/km2)
Forest Surface Erosion 1 - 7
Landslides 20 70 4
Wildfire on 44,000 acres every 80 years 80 455 6
Treatment of 10,000 acres once every 20 years 20 19 1
-Buffering is not available in GeoWEPP
-Channel algorithms need improvement in WEPP routines
-WEPP does not model landslides or debris flows.
Things to consider…
Results can be used to:
-Produce more detailed maps
-Adjust treatment scenarios
-Enhance analysis of individual treatment units
LANDFIRE DATABASE - https://www.landfire.gov/
FireFamilyPlus - https://www.firelab.org/project/firefamilyplus
FlamMap - https://www.firelab.org/project/flammap
ArcFuels - https://www.fs.fed.us/wwetac/tools/arcfuels/index.php
Rapid Response Erosion Database (RRED) -http://geodjango.mtri.org/geowepp/
GeoWEPP - http://geowepp.geog.buffalo.edu/
Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) - http://milford.nserl.purdue.edu/https://forest.moscowfsl.wsu.edu/fswepp/
This project was supported by:Nez-Perce National ForestNASA Applied Sciences Program for Wildfires Grant #NNX12AQ89G
Questions?