1. Puget Sound Watershed Characterization Project
Information to support watershed-based land use decisions July 12 Webinar: WSU Stormwater Center

2. Outline for Today’s Webinar
Introduction to Characterization Project and Tools Users Feedback: Pros and Cons of Tool Scientific Basis for tools How the tool works Future tools Applying the tool: Duvall Example – Aaron Booy ESA

3. Introduction to The Puget Sound Watershed Characterization Project
A multi-agency effort to provide land use planners with a watershed context for decision making
Comprehensive Plan updates
Shoreline Master Program
Sub-area plans
A resource for conservation planners and restoration practitioners across Puget Sound.
Inform mitigation or restoration design at coarse scale
TDR programs
Conservation easements
Stormwater retrofit

4. Purpose of the Characterization
Where on the landscape should planning and management efforts be focused first
Why are those places relatively more or less important than other places
What general types of activities and actions are most appropriate at that place
Water Flow assessment is the primary model for establishing measures to be taken for landuse actions/activities
Other assessments designed to inform those decisions but are not individually designed to set different land use recommendations.

5. Feedback from Users Pros:
“Good filtering tool” to help staff frame the problems and issues.
Provides an impartial analysis of watershed conditions.
More useful when used in conjunction with other tools and data.
Provides information across a watershed in a consistent manner.
Helps fill in knowledge in areas of a watershed where there is a lack of environmental data.
Department of Ecology staff is very accessible and helpful which is key to the usefulness of the tool.
Water Flow assessment is the primary model for establishing measures to be taken for landuse actions/activities
Other assessments designed to inform those decisions but are not individually designed to set different land use recommendations.

6. Feedback from Users
Cons:
Too complicated for most stakeholder groups, citizens and decision makers to directly use and understand.
Does not help explain “cause and effect” relationship which stakeholder groups want.
Results can oversimplify actual conditions and lead to incorrect conclusions.
Inability to simply “grab” the results from the characterization website and use.
Guidance is insufficient for a user to run models and then apply and interpret results.
Does not incorporate the “open standards framework.
Water quality and fish and wildlife model results are difficult to apply and understand.
Water Flow assessment is the primary model for establishing measures to be taken for landuse actions/activities
Other assessments designed to inform those decisions but are not individually designed to set different land use recommendations.

7. Scientific Basis Broad Scale
Broad scale – water flow assessment
Mid & fine scale - In stream flows modeled by Salmon recovery plan
..such as water and sediment movement at the watershed scale
Broad Scale
Ecosystem Services:
Insert PSP priorities – Puget Sound Map and Stormwater
Map of Puget Sound
PSP- Action Agenda
NEP Grants
..such as habitat for birds
..such as a stream channel
or estuary delta
Water Flow model establishes overall land-use recommendations
Mid Scale
Fine Scale

8. Helps Integrates Watershed Data Across Multiple Scales
Broad Scale – 100’s of sq. miles
Fine Scale – less than 1 sq. mile
Scale:
Mid Scale – 1 to 100’s of sq. miles +
= Integrated result
Helps Integrates Watershed Data Across Multiple Scales
Application :
Land Use Planning - Type, & location of new development and development standards
Design of Restoration and Mitigation Projects
What to Use:
Assessments of watershed processes such as those found in Puget Sound Characterization
Salmon Recovery & Basin Plans, Hydrologic, Water Quality & Habitat Studies
Type of Data & Information:
Coarse scale data and Information on land cover, geology, precipitation, topography, land cover
Site specific data on biological, physical and chemical conditions
What it tells you:
The most important areas contributing to processes such as movement of water, sediment, nutrients & general level of integrity of watershed.
Quantifies: hydrologic flows, limiting water quality factors, habitat structure & functions
Key Questions to Ask:
Will the level of integrity in the watershed support downstream restoration actions over the long term?
What is the condition of upstream processes & if degraded will they sustain the project as designed?
What it Tells You:
The best location

9. Data Integration at the Broad Scale
Assessment of:
Water Flow & Water Quality Processes – Vol.1
Terrestrial, Freshwater, & Marine shoreline habitats – Vol. 2
Users Guide – Vol. 3
Peer Reviewed Documents Available At:

10. How the Tool Works: Water Processes Assessments
Water Flow
Importance and Degradation models for
Delivery + Movement + Loss
Water Quality
Export Potential and Degradation models for
Nitrogen
Phosphorus
Sediment
Metals
Pathogens

11. Model Water Flow Processes…..
Model 1 - Importance
Model 2

12. Model Water Flow Processes…..
Model 2 – Degradation to Water Flow Processes
Model 2

13. Overall Water Flow Results Sound Wide
Mt. Vernon
Seattle
Have the maps show seattle, bremerton, oly.
Tacoma

16. Combine Importance and Degradation models

17. Watershed Management Recommendations

18. Future Tools: Mid-Scale Assessment
Landscape Characterization
6/28/05
Future Tools: Mid-Scale Assessment
Developing quantitative measures of watershed condition at the mid or reach scale, using:
High Pulse Counts
Low Flows
Alternative Futures Tool to allow users to assess future development patterns

19. Hydrologic Condition Index (HCI)
By summing the calibrated “high pulse count” for different land uses along a flow path, the Hydrological Condition Index can be determined for a stream system
HCI index can measure the difference in hydrologic impacts based on location of development in watershed
The HCI values could be compared across Puget Sound as a standard measure of stream condition

20. Develop Alternative Futures Tool
Using HCI in one watershed, test and develop an Alternative Futures Tool
Test 3 Development Scenarios: High, Medium and Low Intensity
Determine if HCI results detect any difference between scenarios
High Density Scenario
Low Density, Conservation Scenario

21. Examples of Application of Characterization Tool
Gorst Subarea Plan (2013)..
Duvall Watershed Plan (2015).
Mukilteo Stormwater Retrofit Plan (2012) –