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The Broad River Watershed Protection Demonstration Project
Increasingly, government agencies and private conservation organizations are turning to watershed management as their conservation approach. Since watersheds are defined by natural hydrological features watershed management is the most logical approach for water resource conservation. With this approach, managers are able to more thoroughly understand the threats to an area's water resources, and are therefore better equipped to mitigate them. (See the Glossary for definitions of water resource terms. Also see the Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds for more about The Watershed Approach.)
The Wetlands Planning Unit of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region IV is funding The Broad River Watershed Protection Demonstration Project to demonstrate the applicablility of a watershed management approach for the Broad River Watershed.
The project will use geographic information systems (GIS) technology to analyze and highlight potential land use conflicts between development and water resources. The results will be shared with local officials to help them identify areas for priority consideratioin as they introduce conservation measures into their land use plans and policies. This will be supplemented by efforts to educated policy makers, stakeholders, and the general public on appropriate management strategies for environmentally sensitive areas.
The initial phases of the project will focus on development of a regional database for the watershed. The Fanning Institute at the University of Georgia will be responsible for GIS database development, as well as later analysis and modeling afforts. Created on SUN workstations using ESRI's GIS software, Arc/Info and ArcView, the database will include data for natural and historic resources, infrastructure, and community facilities.
Digital data sets will be provided by The Georgia Department of Community Affairs (GDCA) and three Regional Development Centers (RDC's)
-Georgia Mountains, Northeast Georgia, and Central Savannah. They will be reviewed and modified as necessary for consistency and accuracy and then combined into thematic watershed coverages, such as transportation network, wetlands, elevation, community facilities, and jurisdictional boundaries. Relevant economic and demographic data will also be included. Field observation may be required to complete the database.
ICAD will also develop criteria and analysis procedures to delineate areas of environmetal sensitivity (with particular emphasis on water resources) and high development potential. A spatial model will then be developed. Growth projections and current regional comprehensive plans will help in this process.
The pressures of development felt in the Broad River Watershed are common in Georgia's rural counties. As Atlanta continues to grow increasing numbers of residents in search of a more rural lifestyle are moving to areas like the Broad River Watershed. Typically, these communities welcome the growth as a boon to the local economy. Unfortunately, they are often ill-equipped to handle the pressures of rapid growth. The value of the rural lifesyle--scenery, clean air and water, diverse wildlife--is jeopardized. Thus, growth often leads to land use conflicts as development interests compete with important environmental resources.
Models incorporating socio-economic data with natural resource data could help forecast changes in growing, rural landscapes. Communities could more easily identify land use conflicts and develop growth management strategies to avoid or mitigate environmental degredation.
Though an extensive spatial modeling literature exists for urban landscapes (Bertuglia, et al., 1987), they have not yet been modified for rural applications. The development of a model specifically for rural settings would enhance understanding of how landscapes develop and help identify key variables effecting landscape processes (Baker, 1989).
ICAD will identify and map areas within the watershed that are likely to experience development pressure in the near future and which contain sensitive environmental resources. The GDCA, the EPA, the Broad River Watershed Association (BRWA), and the Georgia Environmental Policy Institute (GEPI) will then collaborate to decide how the findings can most effectively be presented to local policy makers and the general public.
DCA will then host a meeting at which ICAD will present the results of its analysis to local elected officials, and GEPI will present a range of possible watershed managment tools. Input regarding local politics likely to effect management efforts will also be solicited from local officials.
BRWA will make a series of presentations outlining ICAD's findings to elicit public response. These meetings will provide opportunities to gather support for local and regional management strategies.
BRWA will also meet with local officials from each municipal and county government in the watershed to encourage them to consider sensitive areas in future planning decisions. It will also contact individual land ownwers about the possibility of granting conservation easments.
DCA will meet with officials from throughout the watershed to discuss protection strategies under consideration by the individual jurisdictions. Conflicts and overlaps in plans will be eliminated while possible joint programs will be considered. Fund sources will also be discussed.
Finally, DCA will draft a report summarizing the process and distribute it to encourage use of the Broad River approach in other parts of the state.
See the official Broad River Watershed Protection Demonstration Project homepage.
Baker, W. 1989. A review of models of landscape change. Landscape Ecology. 2(2):111-133.
Bertuglia,C., G. Leonardi, S. Occelli, G. Rabino and R. Tadei. 1987. An historical review of approaches to urban modeling. Urban Systems: Contemporary Approaches to Modeling. pp.8-76. ed. C. Bertuglia, G. Leonardi, S. Occelli, G. Rabino, R. Tadei and A. Wilson. London: Croom Helm.
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