Abstract

Communicating Watershed Health Improvements with GIS
Track: Environmental Management
Authors: Laura Porter, Adam Fleenor, Rich Hunter

Clean Water Services is the wastewater and stormwater utility for over 500,000 people to the west of Portland, Oregon and is supported through user fees. It is our obligation to provide cost-effective services and environmentally sensitive management of water resources for the Tualatin Watershed. To meet increasing regulatory demands - Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and state land use regulations - we produced the Healthy Streams Plan in 2005 which prioritized programs, policies and projects. After five years of implementation, we are using GIS to complete a status report to communicate program success with our stakeholders and elected officials. During this presentation, we will share the analysis we completed which included use of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) images and identifying project successes - stream restoration, easements, flow restoration, tree planting, and culvert replacements. A master presentation was created and then customized for member municipalities to recognize current conditions.