SUPPORTING INDICATOR-BASED MANAGEMENT: USING A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM TO ASSESS THE INFLUENCE OF LANDSCAPE CHARACTERISTICS ON STREAM TURBIDITY IN THE LONG ISLAND SOUND WATERSHED
Abstract
Officials with the Long Island Sound Study (LISS) are presently reviewing the
suite of indicators used to assess and report on Long Island Sound’s ecological health
and
the programmatic success of the LISS. As part of this evaluation, managers seek to
determine whether there are environmental variables that offer valuable information
on
ecosystem condition but that have not historically been tracked, or have not been
utilized
to their fullest potential. This paper reviews the use of ecological indicators by
the LISS,
explores the literature documenting relationships between land use/land cover and
water
quality and documents the use of a geographic information system (GIS) to perform
an
analysis of the impact that land use/land cover, slope and soil characteristics have
on
turbidity within the Long Island Sound (LIS) drainage basin. This paper then compares
two models’ ability to predict turbidity: the first model includes information on
land
use/land cover, slope and soil characteristics while the second accounts for soil
characteristics. Although the land use/land cover-based model outperforms the soil
parameters-based model in predicting stream turbidity, neither model’s predictive
ability
is sufficiently strong to accurately forecast turbidity in the study area. These results
are
contrary to those documented in previous investigations. Further examination should
be
undertaken to determine whether an alternate methodology or inclusion of other relevant
parameters would yield a more robust turbidity model.
Type
Master's projectSubject
Long Island Sound Study (LISS)Geographic Information System (GIS)
Environmental Health
Evaluation
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/299Citation
Anson, Robie (2007). SUPPORTING INDICATOR-BASED MANAGEMENT: USING A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM TO ASSESS
THE INFLUENCE OF LANDSCAPE CHARACTERISTICS ON STREAM TURBIDITY IN THE LONG ISLAND
SOUND WATERSHED. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/299.Collections
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