Environmental Data System of the Bureau of Reclamation[1]
David E. Busch[2]
Abstract.—The Environmental Data System (EDS) of the USDI Bureau of Reclamation was begun in 1978 as a catalog for environmental conditions along the Colorado River. Currently in use in the Lower Colorado and Lower Missouri regions, EDS provides the capability to record data on a variety of riparian factors based on a river mile geographic location system.
Introduction
Compared to most land-managing government agencies, the USDI Bureau of Reclamation (BR) holdings are relatively minor. However, due to the nature of its activities there is a concentration of BR-withdrawn and fee-title lands along streams in the western United States. Because of this the BR exerts a measure of control over the destiny of a significant portion of the West's riparian systems of the West.
Background
In response to the environmental legislation of the 1960s and 1970s (e.g., the National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, etc.), the BR became involved with a host of environmental compliance procedures. It soon became evident that these procedures were not always handled most efficiently if treated solely on a project-by-project basis. Thus, the BR began looking for means by which tasks could be combined. To date most environmental compliance activities are still handled in a project-specific manner. However, significant progress has been made toward consolidating tasks in the area of environmental data acquisition.
Environmental Data System
Fundamental Concepts
The result of a number of developments over the intervening years is today's Environmental Data System (EDS). EDS has been most fully developed in the BR Lower Colorado Region for the Colorado River; it is also in use in the Lower Missouri Region for the Platte River system.
EDS is particularly well suited to the Colorado River for a number of reasons.
1. Extensive involvement by government agencies at all levels often makes information exchange difficult. EDS provides an avenue by which certain data regarding riparian or riverine systems may be organized or summarized for interagency communication.
2. The BR, in conjunction with several other organizations, is involved with numerous projects along the river. With this ongoing work comes a continuing need for compliance with environmental statutes. In the several subject areas utilized in determining environmental compliance, EDS can provide relatively current data.
3. Because of the above data needs, extensive amounts of data have been and continue to be gathered on Colorado River ecosystems. EDS provides a means of managing data from the numerous studies of the BR and several other agencies.
4. The waters of the Colorado are heavily utilized. Although EDS will not provide a catalog of all appropriations or uses of the river, it does provide a data base for important instream uses by humans for recreation and by the river's biotic communities.
5. Finally, with the realization of the Colorado's importance as a mesic system surrounded by an extensive xeric upland, EDS provides a catalog for information on its sensitive riparian zone. Data from such studies as vegetation-type mapping or wildlife densities may be stored and retrieved with EDS.
System Philosophy
Considerations for specific projects still usually involve site-specific environmental compliance activities. However, comprehensive or
[1] Paper presented at the California Riparian Systems Conference. [University of California, Davis, September 17–19, 1981].
[2] David E. Busch is Biologist with the Bureau of Reclamation, Lower Colorado Region, Boulder City, Nevada.
definitive analyses would have required the system to be of such complexity to be impractical. Rather, this system is designed as a management tool to direct attention to potential impacts or conditions.
The system is not considered a model, as it does not pretend to arrive at a definitive result. Individual judgment exercised by professionals in the environmental sciences is required to evaluate data reported by EDS. Environmental values stored and reported by the system are often an approximation of a more definitive value. EDS is intended to serve as a "flag" to areas that require further specific analysis, but it can be used as a primary data source where a high level of resolution is not required.
Data Grouping
River Miles
Various techniques for storage of data by geographic location were considered, ranging from pinpoint accuracy to summarizing long river stretches into a single value for a given parameter. Traditional coordinate systems failed to adequately or simply describe the linear nature of riparian and aquatic systems. Instead, the river mile system in use for the Colorado River (Pacific Southwest Interagency Committee 1976) was adopted. Fundamentally, milepost numbering under this system starts with zero at the southerly International Boundary with Mexico and continues upriver.
Figure l.
River mile system used for mapping the Lower Colorado River's riparian vegetation (note combination of mileposts 57–59).
The river mile system works especially well for data tied closely to the aquatic zone (e.g., water quality or recreation). Consideration of subjects such as vegetation-types or cultural resource sites, more closely linked to the riparian zone, is not quite as simple. To handle these, river mile delineations are extended at a rough perpendicular to the river's axis. However, at sharper bends in the river such extended river miles could coincide, causing confusion. This is averted by combining river miles, as is depicted in figure 1 for Colorado River riparian vegetation-type and structure.
River Banks
Differentiation between left and right banks is made by the user visualizing he is facing upstream. On the lower Colorado River this means, of course, that the right bank is in Arizona while the left bank is in California or Nevada.
Summary
One particularly useful capability of EDS is the summary function. This option allows the user to add data over a given stretch to obtain a cumulative view. Thus, if concern is expressed for riparian vegetation adversely affected by a project, an estimate (by type and structure) of the amount of vegetation disturbed (by type and structure) of the amount of vegetation disturbed may be obtained by milepost and also for the entire project area or convenient subdivision thereof.
Baseline
Because several major studies were scheduled for conclusion that year, 1976 was selected as baseline for the purposes of the EDS data base. Even though original data may actually have been collected in years subsequent to 1976, they are still derived from the year closest to 1976, and therefore still considered baseline information for comparative purposes. Data collected from later studies are used for modification of, or comparison to, the 1976 baseline. Historical information can be entered, as can conditions for the future derived from predictive models, if such data suit the user's purposes.
Functional Description
Data Input
A batch technique (punch-cards) was selected as the input mode for EDS. This method was found to be most reliable, with the consideration that most EDS data are developed by contractors. Problems with specifications for coding schemes were thought to make magnetic tape an unsuitable alternative. Likewise, online update methods were
Figure 2.
Output flowchart depicting event sequence for producing an EDS report.
ruled out because of cost, the risk of unintentional alterations to the existing data base, and the difficutly of quality control.
Output/Report Production
The flowchart depicting EDS report production is found in figure 2. As an interactive system EDS is quite easy to access and use from a time-share terminal. Responding to the prompts of the Report Generator Program, the user creates the job control language and parameter records necessary to submit to the select program. This program then selects the data the user has requested from the previously created master file, disposing the appropriate report to a line printer.
Disciplines-Modules
Environmental compliance often requires input from a diverse range of expertise. Data for the EDS reside in one of the following modules, representing some of the various disciplines for which environmental studies are conducted.
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Technical modules are designed to provide basic environmental data on a number of parameters within each module. Reference modules make up a data base supplementing or modifying information in the technical modules. The user works with only one technical module at a time, but may supplement a report with data from either of the reference modules.
Within each of these modules, the choice of the factors for which data could be recorded was made after an investigation by the appropriate professionals. Generally, the parameters, and the ranges thereof, are what might be considered "standard" or "accepted." Allowance was made, however, for the incorporation of data from other sources that were readily adaptable to EDS.
Currently, technical modules on-line in the Lower Colorado Region include recreation, vegetation (type and structure), wildlife (avian species) density, and geography. In the Lower Missouri Region, vegetation (community-type) data have been entered on EDS. What follows is a description of the existing data base for the Lower Colorado River and how it relates to the river's riparian zone.
Technical Modules
Vegetation
The vegetation module has much utility for riparian systems study. Some of its potential lies in its possibilities for interfacing with habitat-based biological evaluation methods. Data contained in this module can also be of interest to specialists dealing with aspects of stream hydrology.
Riparian vegetation data are entered on EDS using characteristics prescribed in Anderson and Ohmart (1976). Vegetation is recorded, by bank (left or right) and river mile, in acres. Plant community structural-type, based on foliage height density, may be superimposed on the vegetative community-type code if desired.
Wildlife Density
Data from wildlife surveys, conducted over any given river stretch, may be included on EDS in summary, or on a seasonal basis. Species occurrence may be recorded for specified river reaches. If more detailed studies have been performed, species densities, using number per 100 acres, may also be recorded. A five-season year is available in EDS, primarily to correspond to the avian yearly cycle.
Community- and structure-types (from the vegetation module) may be used to show habitat preference within any river mile(s) for which such data are available. Data for this type of utilization of the species density module were provided for Lower Colorado River avian species by Anderson and Ohmart (1977).
Recreation
Data pertaining to the recreational use of a stream are classed as either land-based or water-based for EDS. Such simplification was deemed necessary because the myriad recreational activities which could occur along a given river stretch defy adequate description by this type of system. Both land and water data are recorded for four seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter). Recreation data are in units of visitor-use days, with six-digit figures allotted for each river mile reach. Data developed for the Lower Colorado Region by Greey etal . (1980) include projections for the future in addition to the 1976 baseline.
Geographic
The geographic module was provided as an interface between the river mile descriptions of EDS and traditional legal descriptions or the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) system used in other geographic classifications. For example, a substantial data base on archaeological sites is available by geographic coordinates for the Lower Colorado Region. The geographic module will allow easy conversion of these site locations to
to the river mile system used in most BR project work on the Colorado River.
Reference Modules
Bibliography
This module is designed to provide information on the authors of studies contributing to the data base in any of the other modules. The author's name, the study title, and date are all components of this module. Space is also reserved for government contract number and dates of the contract, if appropriate. The user, if he desires, may generate a bibliography list when in one of the data modules.
Comments
Similar to obtaining a bibliography list, comments pertaining to any of the other modules may be requested. Data contained in this module can be quite variable, and persons inputting data on EDS may use this module to suit their own needs.
EDS Applications
In the past year, data from all existing EDS modules have been useful in the preparing several environmental assessments and environmental impact statements. BR hydrologists have referred to vegetative module data to assess transpiration "loss" of water. In addition, biologists from the California Department of Fish and Game have used both vegetation and avian species density information in special status species studies (e.g., Arizona Bell's Vireo) in the Colorado River's riparian zone.
Programmed additions will allow input and use of cultural resources inventory data, as well as data from a number of aquatic disciplines. Updates of existing wildlife species density and vegetation-type and structure modules will soon be possible as BR-contracted biological studies continue.
Acknowledgments
The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of Robert Adams of the BR Engineering and Research Center, without whom the Environmental Data System's development would not have been possible.
Literature Cited
Anderson, B.W., and R.D. Ohmart. 1976. Vegetation type maps of the Lower Colordo River from Davis Dam to the southerly International Boundary. USDI Bureau of Reclamation, Boulder City, Nevada.
Anderson, B.W., and R.D. Ohmart. 1977. Wildlife use and densities report of birds and mammals in the Lower Colorado River Valley. 355 p. USDI Bureau of Reclamation, Boulder City, Nevada.
Greey, G.W., G.W. Cheatham, A.C. Jaten, and R.J. Virden. 1977. A comparison of study year data of divisional outdoor recreational use on the Lower Colorado River, 1976–1978. 388 p. USDI Bureau of Reclamation, Boulder City, Nevada.
Pacific Southwest Interagency Committee. 1976. Report of the Water Management Technical Subcommittee—River Mile Index. 70 p. USDI Bureau of Reclamation, Boulder City, Nevada.