2011 Science Delivery Highlights
WaSSI Ecosystem Services Model Web Application Available Online
A new web application brings the WaSSI model to resource managers with a powerful, flexible, and user friendly interface
EFETAC scientists developed a web application to complement the Water Supply Stress Index (WaSSI) model. The WaSSI tool assesses the impact of climate, population, and land cover change on anthropogenic, or human, water supply and demand, ecosystem productivity and carbon sequestration, and biodiversity across the conterminous US and Mexico. WaSSI model results provide useful data for resource managers to make informed management decisions in light of changing environmental conditions. In addition, educators, researchers, non-governmental organizations, and the general public could use the model to gain insight on the effects of global change on water, carbon, and biodiversity at both local and continental scales. The new WaSSI web application brings the utility of the WaSSI model to local and regional resource managers, allowing them to view charts of model inputs for their location, design future scenarios of climate, land cover, and anthropogenic water use, and view charts of model outputs for their location so that the impact of these factors on the watershed water balance, water supply stress, carbon sequestration, and biodiversity and the tradeoffs among these ecosystem services may be assessed.
Contact: Peter Caldwell, research hydrologist, (919) 515-1560, pcaldwell02@fs.fed.us
