Last week, the EPA went live with Watershed Central, a new website which provides information to aid in the design, implementation and management of watershed projects. According to the EPA, “the site includes guidance, tools, case studies, and data sets to help you share information, analyze data, and identify opportunities to initiate or strengthen your watershed efforts.”
I’ve taken a look around the site, and there are some really useful resources here for anyone that has to work with watersheds. Here’s a list of some of the best features:
“Collaborative Tools” link - Contains the “Map Your Watershed” tool that lets you access environmental data from the EPA’s Envirofacts Warehouse by using an interactive map or by entering your location (State, County, Zip Code, etc). Also has the “Window to My Environment” which uses a map-based application to view geospatial and tabular data about regulated facilities in the U.S.
“Watershed Management Process” link - Brings up a page that shows the Watershed Plan Builder, which aids the creation of a customized watershed plan outline. Then, this page goes through an iterative set of steps to be followed to successfully implement the watershed management process. This is a really useful and easy-to-use tool that breaks down the complex watershed management process into manageable and orderly steps.
“Models, Tools, and Databases” link - Offers a number of tools that are all evaluated by the Watershed Wiki community (which you can be a part of). This page is divided into three sections called, Models, Habitat Assessment Tools, and Databases. I’m not going to list all the great resources here, but suffice it to say there are a lot of them and many are absolutely invaluable.
“Guidance, Rules and Regulations” link - Contains concise information about the federal laws, EPA regulations, and Executive Orders that are pertinent to water resources
Watershed Central Wiki - A community knowledge base that allows professionals and practitioners to share information about all aspects of watershed management. Community members share case studies, best practices, and rate the tools available on the EPA site. Also, the Wiki allows you to find partners in your area to work with on watershed projects. To view the Wiki, you’ll have to create a sign-in. This helps ensure the quality of the contributing members remains high.
Overall, this is just a great new site by the US EPA. You could probably find most of these tools and information in other various places, but this site puts them all into one central location and supports them with a community of professionals to ensure all the information is accurate and useful. If you do any work at all with watersheds, check this site out using the link at the beginning of the post. It will be well worth your time.
