Development of an Adaptive Framework for Management of Military Operations in Arid/Semi-Arid Regions to Minimize Watershed and Instream Impacts from Non-Point Pollution

摘要

To ensure sustainability and adaptability in managing training operations while minimizing impacts on watersheds, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) needs to identify activities that contribute to non-point source pollution, and strategically locate and schedule operations. During land-based training exercises, the potential exists for extreme spatial and temporal variability in hydrologic conditions. This can directly influence the level of associated environmental impacts from non-point-source pollutants such as eroded sediment, petroleum products, and heavy metals. We are developing decision tools to provide information to articulate tradeoffs between alternative management actions and resultant impacts and/or benefits to training range or adjacent downstream water bodies. These decision tools, and the data, science, technology, and knowledge upon which they are based, are necessary to bring the best science to bear on practical decision making. The overall approach to this project is to develop, assemble, link, and integrate the tool set for an adaptive management framework (AMF); demonstrate its use and value; and operationalize the framework for general application in arid and semi-arid regions. The site-specific demonstration is focused on managing training operations and minimizing impacts on training areas and downstream receiving waters at the Yakima Training Center (YTC) in south-central Washington State. This report presents a Geographic Information System (GIS)- based decision support framework. This framework provides the YTC stakeholders and DoD user community with the ability to plan training activities, map the erosion potential response in a system designed to be easy to use, and provide meaningful results to help formulate the decision-making process.