Abstract

Wetland Hydrologic Index of Prioritization
Track: Water Resources
Authors: Martin Alcala Jr

In the past 30 years the increased urbanization of the Rio Grande Valley has profoundly affected the water quality of the Arroyo Colorado Watershed. The Arroyo Colorado Watershed Protection Plan includes the implementation of a regional wetland system, but there is no accepted method for determining and prioritizing locations for regional treatment wetlands. In this study an innovative method for wetland location identification using an Expert System based on the Multi-criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) technique Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) coupled with GIS techniques called the Wetland Hydrologic Index of Prioritization (WHIP) was successfully developed, implemented, and analyzed in the study. The survey of persons with extensive experience with water quality issues (experts) through AHP and the incorporation of AHP into a spatial prioritization tool for constructed wetland site selection was able to produce a tool to begin the process that was proposed in the Watershed Protection Plan.