U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. Geological Survey

COAST Toolkit: The Forested Land Management decision support tool

Cassandra Ladino, U.S. Geological Survey

On Behalf of the COAST Development Team

10/05/11 Forest Conservation Demo

Outline Chesapeake Online Adaptive Support Toolkit (COAST)

• What is COAST

• Adaptive Management concepts

Forested Land Management Mapper Demo• PowerPoint slide overview

• Live demo with Q/A

Discussion and Next Steps

The Chesapeake Online Adaptive Support Toolkit (COAST)

Science based Decision-support tool• WWW based

• Integrated framework of models and information

• Adaptive management

Implement and assess actions• Chesapeake Action Plan

• Executive Order

• Water quality

• Watersheds (forest management)

User groups• State, federal, local, NGO’s

Adaptive Management

A specific kind of structured decision making

Learning by doing and adapting to what is learned

Improves both the operation of restoration programs and meeting restoration goals

Executive Order Strategy

Decision Support Tools Amongst Partners

COAST ChesapeakeStat

Bay Barometer

• Environmental Measures

• Accountability stating process for measuring progress toward program goals

• Spatial selection of priority areas for resource management through the use of scientific information and data

Representing Adaptive Management

The Toolkit provides web map applications to support adaptive management steps.

Data Characteristics:

Data list determined by COAST working group subject experts

•Vulnerability to Conversion

•Economic Importance

•Forest Hub Size

•Soil Productivity

•Stream Order

•Stream Density

•Soil Moisture

•Adjacent Land Cover

•Slope

•Impaired Streams

$

!Site Index

(Avg Tree Height)

FLM Data

Forested Land Management Tool (FLM)

Data Characteristics:

Analysis by HUC, County, or State

Analysis Unit = NHDplus catchment

$

!Site Index

(Avg Tree Height)

FLM Data

FLM Data

LAYER SOURCE YEAR CELL SIZE VALUE RANGE

Vulnerability to Conversion RLA 2000 30 meter 1 - 4

Economic Importance RLA 2000 30 meter 1 -100

Forest Hub Size RLA 2000 30 meter 170.6 -1376538.2 acres

Soil Productivity SSURGO.Site_Index_r 2010 10 meter 25 - 110 years

Stream Order NHDplus 2005 10- 12 HUC Strahler Order 1 -7

Stream Density NHDplus 2005 10- 12 HUC 0.000011 - 0.154414

Soil Moisture SSURGO.Soimoistdept_r 2010 10 meter 0 - 200 meters

Adjacent Landcover CBLC 2006 2006 30 meter Land cover classes 21- 95

Slope NHDplus 2005 10 meter 0 - 109 %

Impaired Streams EPA 2002 -2006 10 - 12 HUC Yes (1) or No (0)

Layers Data Scale

Parameter 4 3 2 1 0

Vulnerability to conversion High Moderate Low   0= not forest

Large Blocks (Forest Hub Size) (acres) 500-1000 200-500 < = 200   0= not forest

Soils Productivity ( Forest Suitability) Highly suitable = 90-80 Mod. Suitable= 79-75 Low Suitability=74-64 Very poor suitability=63-1 0= not forest

Stream order/HUC 1st order/12 digit 2nd order/11 digit 3rd order > 3rd order/8 digit HUC NA

Stream Density/ HUC > 1.042 0.77 - 1.042 0.524 - 0.769 0 - 0.523 NA

Importance to economy Very valuable High value Mod value Low value 0= not forest

Soil Moisture <1 meter 1 - 2 meters 2 - 5 meters 5 - 10 meters 0= >10

Adjacent Land Cover Agricultural Lands Open Space Urban Forested 0= not forest

Slope >25% 15-25% 5-15% 0-5% 0= not forest

Impaired Streams       Yes 0= No

FLM Data

FLM Interface

Highlights

Online Public Access

User creates prioritization

Source data are accessible

View other related datasets

* Under development this year *

FLM DEMO – Select an area of interest

Frederick County

FLM DEMO – Select layers for analysis

In this scenario:

We are prioritizing layers based on Preservation potential.

Vulnerability to Conversion and Forest Hub Size were of equal and highest importance to us.

Stream Order and Stream Density were of equal and lowest importance.

Soil Productivity is three times as important as Stream Density and Stream Order.

Economic Importance is two times as important as Stream Density and Stream Order.

FLM DEMO – Map the data

FLM DEMO – Investigate the results

Live Demo with Q/A

Go to:http://lcat.usgs.gov/coast/cbflm/

Lets create a scenario... Objective? State/ County? Which Layers?

Next Steps

Next Steps• Release the COAST Forested Land Management

decision support tool

• Continue presentations and demonstration to key user groups

Questions and Contacts

COAST Website URL: http://chesapeake.usgs.gov/coast/ Keywords: USGS COAST

U.S. Geological Survey Contacts: Cassandra Ladino, ccladino@usgs.gov Paul Hearn – Apps Team Leader Scott Phillips – COAST Project Manager