Non-Point Source Priority Dashboard
The Non-Point Source Priority Dashboard (NPSPD) was developed to assist the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) prioritize watersheds for conservation, restoration, and preservation.
This tool allows users to explore Colorado water systems and prioritize or rank particular watersheds or locations within them, based on a range of user-selected criteria to assist with decision making at the state-or-local level.
METHOD
The NPSPD uses a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) approach to assist with tactical decision making by allowing users to build customized analysis scenarios and identify critical watersheds in a specified region. Using a geospatial interface, a user can select from three pre-populated analyses with default values to reflect a variety of indicators including those identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Healthy Watersheds Assessment Program and the CDPHE.
Users can customize the level of importance and either maximize or minimize the significance of numerous assessment criteria ranging from landscape and biological condition to water quality and contamination, to land use and climate change. Multiple analyses can be conducted and compared within the dashboard. Results and raw data can be exported as a spreadsheet and the interactive graphing features help visualize the model outputs.
DATA
The Dashboard uses publicly accessible data available through the following open-source providers:
- EPA Environmental Dataset Gateway
- USGS National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD)
- USDA-NRCS Snow Telemetry (SNOTEL)
- USGS National Transportation Dataset (NTD)
- EPA WQX/STORET Water Quality Data Portal
- CDPHE Water Quality Control Division GIS Data
- USGS National Water Information System
- LANDFIRE Program
RESULTS
The NPSPD uses Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to build customized analysis scenarios and identify critical watersheds in a user-specified region. A user can select from three pre-populated analyses:
- EPA Healthy Watershed Assessment Program
- Protect
- Restore
Once any optional changes have been made to the analysis type and/or the default indicator values the MCDA will be performed. After the run is complete results of the analysis will be displayed in the “MCDA Results” tab. Multiple analyses can be performed and displayed simultaneously to compare results. Raw data used in an analysis can be exported as a .csv or excel file and the corresponding graph can be downloaded as an image or .pdf by selecting the horizontal bars in the upper right corner of the table. The MCDA results can also be downloaded as an excel spreadsheet.