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Indexes for Targeting Buffer Placement to Improve Water Quality
1Z. Qiu, 2M. G. Dosskey
1. New Jersey Institute of Technology
2. USDA Forest Service
Targeting the placement of vegetative buffers may increase their effectiveness to improve watershed water quality. Several GIS-based indexes have been developed to help planners identify relatively better locations for placing buffers. Conservation planners require consistent and clear recommendations on which index should be used in a given planning area. The Wetness Index (Moore et al. 1991) employs only DEM-derived topographic information, to which the Topographic Index (Walter et al. 2002) adds two soil survey variables, for gauging locations to which relatively more runoff flows. The Water Inflow Index (Dosskey et al. 2011) employs both of these data sources in a simplified NRCS Curve Number approach for assessing runoff volume, to which the Sediment Retention Index (Dosskey et al. 2011) adds erosion and sedimentation factors for guaging the relative amount of sediment that could be retained by a buffer at any given location. Since runoff contributing area is a key variable in all four of these indexes, they may identify similar locations. This study compares and contrasts the results of these indexes for agricultural watersheds in New Jersey and Missouri to determine the degree of correspondence between them for identifying better locations for buffer placement. Where correspondence is low, recommendations are made for determining conditions under which each index would be a better choice for targeting buffer placement.
Keyword: Water Quality, GIS, Vegetative Buffers
Z. Qiu    M. G. Dosskey    Precision Conservation and Carbon Management    Poster    2012
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