Digital Wetlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania

Presenter:Samuel M. Zehel Jr.California University of PA

Wetlands are a sparse but important feature of a complex southwest Pennsylvania topography. The

region’s historic coal industry, agriculture and more recent urban expansion and the resulting ecological effects from these activities make information on natural systems such as wetlands and associated

drainage systems increasingly important.

Long-term Goal Provide a unique,

interactive digital database and web-mapping service within a geographic information system for public utilization of mapping data for wetland status, function, and associated resource vulnerability assessment.

User Wishes

Searchable Readable Accessible Reliable Expandable Informative

Equipment Design & Implementation Dell Poweredge 2950

Intel Xeon E5320 @ 1.8 GHz 4 Gigabytes RAM 600 GB Drive space

Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition SQL Server 2005 IIS 6.0(Internet Information Server) Microsoft Office 2003 format

Text Editor – HTML design ESRI(Environmental Systems Research Institute)

ArcGIS Server 9.2 ArcGIS Desktop 9.2

GeographicalInformationSystem Design

Datum:North American 1983 Projection:US State Plane 83 (Pennsylvania South) External Maps

USGS - Digital Raster Graphics quadrangles(DRG) & National Hydrography Dataset(NHD) : http://www.usgs.gov

Fish and Wildlife Service(FWS) - National Wetlands Inventory(NWI) : http://www.fws.gov/nwi

PennsylvaniA Spatial Data Access(PASDA) - Aerial Photography of Westmoreland County : http://www.pasda.psu.edu

GIS Design (cont.)

External Maps (cont.) United States Department of Agriculture(USDA)

National Resources Conservation Service(NRCS)- Soil Survey Map : http://soils.usda.gov

Unidata & the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) – Real-time Satellite cloud cover of Eastern Continental U.S.: http://www.unidata.ucar.edu

Internal Map (gathered field data) 160 + points surveyed using GPS, photography, and

Wetlands Assessment tools. Name, location, assessment data and images linked

together in a searchable web interface.

Wetland AssessmentLevel 1

REMOTE SENSING DATANO SITE VISIT

Level 2RAPID ASSESSMENT

SITE VISIT WITH HABITAT, FUNCTION, & STRESSOR CHECKLISTS

Level 3FUNCTIONAL OR BIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENTSDETAILED QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL, AND/OR

PHYSICAL,AND/OR BIOLOGICAL DATA COLLECTION

Field Survey Data Collection Design

Purpose & Function Assessment tool primarily developed as a tool for

performing regulatory categorization of wetlands by Ohio EPA

For our study: modified from Ohio Rapid Assessment Method (ORAM)

Focus is on overall wetland condition and ecological integrity; indirectly function

Parts of RAM 5 main parts of RAM:

BACKGROUND INFORMATION SECTION SCORING BOUNDARY SECTION NARRATIVE RATING QUESTIONS QUANTITATIVE RATING QUESTIONS CATEGORIZATION WORKSHEET

Wetland Assessment Metrics Disturbance metrics

buffer width, intensity of surrounding land use, hydrologic, substrate, and habitat intactness

Other metrics Size, water source, hydroperiod, connectivity, habitat

development, special wetland communities (e.g., bog, old growth), plant community quality, microtopography, habitat heterogeneity, amphibian habitat

Field Data to Database Translation

Sample hand-written page -(background information)

Sample Word doc.(background information)

Field Data to Database Translation(cont)

Field Data to Database translation (Cont.)

Fulfilling User Needs

By combining public data with field survey data, we hope to provide the user community with a tool that can be used to compare/contrast wetlands conditions from the past, and into the future.

Time/Cost Analysis

Public data VS. Private dataAdvantages

Price/Availability TimelyEstablished Specific

DisadvantagesMundane CostlyGeneral Niche data

Strengths and Advantages

Recent & accurate field data using rapid assessment site visit with habitat, function, & stressor checklistsMore detailed information on habitats than other surveys of the areaSeveral layers available to compareEase & availability of use.

Next Steps of Action

Provide wetland metrics in descriptive as well as numeric representation

Improve/update field survey metadata Include map search by city & street address as

well as name (currently only wetland available) Improve speed & reliability of mapping app. Increase & improve data content (more surveys) Represent wetland by polygon instead of point.

Show where plant communities are located in polygon form (not points)

Next Steps(cont.)

Thanks to:

California University of Pennsylvania Faculty, Staff and Students (www.cup.edu)

Government Agencies:- Environmental Protection Agency for Primary

Funding(www.epa.gov)- USGS, FWS, and USDA for map data

(www.usgs.gov, www.fws.gov&www.usda.gov)

ESRI Technical Support (support.esri.com) Unidata real-time satellite cloud cover

imagery(www.unidata.ucar.edu)

Questions(zehel@cup.edu) and Demo