EcoAtlas: A Technology Tool for Wetland Protection and Management Data Management Workgroup June 6, 2012 Meredith Williams Cristina Grosso

Questions for today What are the wetland protection information needs? How would an EcoAtlas meet those needs? How does an EcoAtlas relate to other available tools and initiatives? Where are we now? How do we move forward?

Basic Assumptions More data of more kinds are needed to support local activities than state activities, which require more data of more kinds than are needed to support federal activities (i.e., EcoAtlas is to CEDEN as CEDEN is to WQX). Climate change and population pressures necessitate more coordination of aquatic resource planning, management, and regulation at watershed and landscape scales (i.e. activities under CWA/Porter Cologne must be synched with activities under ESA/CESA in relation to planning for water supply, flood control, sea level rise, transportation, and urbanization). Activities need to be coordinated vertically as well as horizontally (i.e., local, state, and federal activities need to share tools for planning, assessment, and reporting).

WRAMP What is WRAMP supposed to do? Answer the question: where are the wetlands and riparian areas and what are their conditions?  condition & extent Why is WRAMP needed (what are the statutory or policy drivers)? EPA requests that 305b Integrated Reports include wetlands  condition State No-Net-Loss Policy requires State of the State’s Wetlands Report  change WAPP requires effectiveness monitoring  program effectiveness A watershed/landscape approach is integral to Section 404(b)(1) and WAPP  program effectiveness

Q: How Does EcoAtlas support WRAMP? WRAMP requires the following: – Track ambient wetland and riparian extent, and condition, and change – Track and assess the effectiveness of 401/WDR and LSA activities – Support the Watershed/Landscape Approach to mitigation planning under 404/401 and its alignment with planning under ESA/CESA EcoAtlas works by accepting, formatting, and delivering data to support watershed and landscape planning, protection and effectiveness monitoring. – Landscape context through habitat tracking – Project Tracking – Condition information with landscape context – Integration of data and information at the watershed/landscape scale A: EcoAtlas serves as the WRAMP User Interface

EcoAtlas EcoAtlas supports coordinated planning and reporting of local, state and federal activities at the landscape and watersheds scales Local: General and Master Plans, flood control plans, water supply plans, local ordinances, LID State: THPs, NCCP, State of the State’s Wetland Report, NPDES and 401/WDR and 1600 tracking Federal: Integrated Reporting, HCP, Category 4b Watershed Plans Identifying and targeting the correct audience/end user is key Make sure the User Interface meets user needs

The approach so far Wetland Tracker has been evolving to provide access to information and tools for aquatic resources (primarily wetlands) for targeted user communities: scientists, regulators, managers, practitioners Project/Administrative info Habitat data -Wetlands and other surface waters (CARI) -Riparian areas -Vegetation (VegCAMP, CalVeg, eelgrass) -Land cover and land use (USGS, ABAG, etc.) Condition Data Information accessible through Tracker falls into three broad areas

Technology stack Open Layers PostgreSQL with PostGIS CRAM database PostgreSQL

EcoAtlas Project/ Administrative info Habitat layers Condition Data EcoAtlas as a tool to meet Policy Development, Aquatic Resource Planning, Tracking and Reporting Needs Output Policy development Stream & wetland protection Local ordinances WAPP Biological objectives Output Planning tools General plan Master plans Flood control plans HCPs/NCCP Mitigation and restoration plans Scenario planning visualization tools Output Tracking and reporting 1600 activities and effects 401/WDR activities and effects Integrated Reports No net loss summaries MWQ Portals content State of the State’s Wetlands

Potential EcoAtlas outputs Outputs can integrate across all three categories of information. Outputs can be viewable or downloadable. No net loss reporting Past aquatic resources Current aquatic resources Impact of permitted activities Net change results Mitigation analysis Stream Ordinance Stream location Riparian extent LSA/1600 activity EcoAtlas Project/ Administrative info Habitat layers Condition Data MWQ Portals Indicator synthesis Aquatic resources spatial summaries HCP Aquatic Resources summary CNDDB species list Ongoing restoration projects Condition information Output

Technology building blocks Atlas both serves data as a local host and uses web services to make non-hosted data available Spatial queries are critical to meaningful aggregation of information APIs and web services give us flexibility to bring information together User engagement, user engagement, user engagement

Data exchanges: Atlas exchanges data with existing infrastructure Online 401 Applicant input CIWQS SWRCB Program Administration EcoAtlas Project Habitat Condition Watershed context Online 401 tool to manage wetland permitting process

EcoAtlas Data exchanges: Atlas exchanges data with existing infrastructure MWQ Portal Wetland Protection Wetland Extent Wetland Condition CEDEN EcoAtlas as data source – spatial information EcoAtlas as data harvester – water quality information

EcoAtlas Project/Administrative info 401 permitted projects in Spatial data -Eelgrass surveys -BAARI -NWI and NHD -Historical baylands Condition Data CRAM (not hosted) EcoAtlas: Current content

Wetland Tracker what’s in development

Selection of Layers to be displayed

Display of Habitat and Project Spatial Layers

Habitat, CRAM, & Projects displayed

Zoomed for Tool Use

Selection of Landscape Profile Tool

Basin Delineation using USGS StreamStats tool Catchment drainage point selection

Landscape Profile Summary pt. 1

Landscape Profile Basin Summary pt. 2

Landscape Profile Basin Summary pt. 3

Maps Drive EcoAtlas No net loss reporting Past aquatic resources Current aquatic resources Impact of permitted activities Net change results Mitigation analysis Stream Ordinance Stream location Riparian extent LSA/1600 activity EcoAtlas Project/ Administrative info Habitat layers Condition Data MWQ Portals Indicator synthesis Aquatic resources spatial summaries HCP Aquatic Resources summary CNDDB species list Ongoing restoration projects Condition information Output EcoAtlas content is spatial content Spatial layers

California Aquatic Resources Inventory CARI The common map is needed –CARI v.0 = best available  September –CARI v.1 = data that meet standards Standardized across the state, but accommodating regional differences Flexible enough to meet different requirements (e.g., EcoAtlas vs. MWQ Portal)

EcoAtlas development tenets Don’t host everything Target the end users CWMW to provide oversight and funding

Development Priorities Top tier CARI Richer Landscape Profiles tools Intensive assessment (Level 3) data – (from CEDEN) Next tier Data exchanges & web services Additional spatial layers

September tool release 1.Wetland Tracker rebranding as EcoAtlas with – Landscape profiles – CARI v. 0 – Improved CRAM data display 2.New My Water Quality Wetlands Portal 3.New CRAM database and online interface