Santa Clara Valley Water District Priority D5 Project's Watershed Condition Assessments (2010 to 2018)
The Santa Clara Valley Water District’s (Valley Water) Safe, Clean Water and Natural Flood Protection Program has many priorities, including eight projects under Priority D for “restoring and protecting vital wildlife habitat and providing opportunities for increased access to trails and open space". In 2010, during the development of the foundational roots of the Priority D5 Project: Ecological Data Collection and Analysis effort, Valley Water implemented a watershed approach to environmental monitoring and assessment using the State's Wetland and Riparian Area Monitoring Plan’s (WRAMP) 3-level framework recommended by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). The D5 Project has since been conducting watershed-wide GIS-based (Level-1) and rapid stream condition assessments (Level-2) in five major watersheds of Santa Clara County including Coyote Creek, Guadalupe River, upper Pajaro River, Lower Peninsula, and West Valley watersheds. The five watersheds will be re-assessed by Valley Water satarting in 2020 to evaluate temporal and spatial changes in stream condition.
The D5 Project's watershed survey's employ several free, online standardized monitoring and assessment tools developed for statewide use to support the State Wetland Definition and Procedures for Discharges of Dredged or Fill Material to Waters of the State including: the California Aquatic Resources Inventory (CARI, the statewide GIS-based aquatic resource map), CRAM for streams and wetlands, and EcoAtlas (an interactive, online data management, visualization, and access website). The purpose of the watershed assessments is to align the collection and analysis of ecological data with the needs of water resource decision-makers by collecting data that address specific management questions developed by Valley Water's resource managers.
To date, streams in all five major watersheds in Santa Clara County have been assessed by the Priority D5 Project with support from SFEI and Michael Baker International. The final watershed assessment reports can be found at the following links:
Related Projects, News, and Events:
California Rapid Assessment Method (CRAM) (Project)
CRAM is a standardized, scientifically defensible rapid assessment method for monitoring the ecological conditions of wetlands throughout California. Because it is standardized, one can compare ecological conditions of wetlands locally, regionally and statewide.
Statewide Wetland Tracking, Science, and Policy Development Support (Project)
SFEI’s Wetland Science Focus Area’s Director, Josh Collins, is a leader in the coordination of statewide science advisory teams and acquiring funding to develop monitoring and assessment tools that support the State’s Wetland and Riparian Area Protection Policy.
RipZET: A GIS-based Tool for Estimating Riparian Zones (Project)Design by Linda Wanczyk
The Riparian Zone Estimator Tool (RipZET) is a decision support tool developed by the San Francisco Estuary Institute and Aquatic Science Center for the California Riparian Habitat Joint Venture and the California Water Resources Control Board to assist in the visualization and characterization of riparian areas in the watershed context.
Coyote Creek Watershed Historical Ecology Study (Project)
This report synthesizes historical evidence into a picture of how Coyote Creek looked and functioned before intensive modification. Prepared for the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the report helps explain contemporary landscape conditions and identify options for watershed restoration, natural flood protection, and integrated water management.
Bay Area Aquatic Resource Inventory (BAARI) (Project)
The Bay Area Aquatic Resources Inventory (BAARI) is a GIS base map of the Bay Area's wetlands, open water, streams, ditches, tidal marshes and flats, and riparian areas. BAARI was developed using standardized mapping protocols to ensure that the level of detail and wetland classification system is standardized across the region.
Tahoe WRAMP Demonstration: Watershed Assessment (Project)
The Tahoe WRAMP Watershed Demontration Project transfered statewide wetland monitoring and asseement tools to Sierra Nevada environmental agencies and organizations through a pilot project that assessed the distribution and abundance of wetlands, and the overall ecologcial condition of streams in two watersheds within the Lake Tahoe Basin.
Santa Rosa Plain Wetlands Profile: A Demonstration of WRAMP (Project)
The Santa Rosa Plain WRAMP project demonstrated the use of the State’s standardized monitoring and assessment tools in a North Coast watershed setting and described how the results can support watershed based management and planning decisions to protect and manage the state’s wetlands at a landscape scale.
Historical Ecology of Lower San Francisquito Creek (Project)
The primary goal of this project was to produce GIS layers and georeferenced imagery for use by the planning and engineering team of the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority. The memo serves as metadata for the GIS, helping explain the interpretation of original historical documents.
Statewide Wetland Tracking, Science, and Policy Development Support (Project)
SFEI’s Wetland Science Focus Area’s Director, Josh Collins, is a leader in the coordination of statewide science advisory teams and acquiring funding to develop monitoring and assessment tools that support the State’s Wetland and Riparian Area Protection Policy.
Developing a Sustainable Business Model for the EcoAtlas Toolset (Project)
This project is funded by a USEPA wetland development grant (2015-2017) to develop a recommended funding and business model for the EcoAtlas toolset. EcoAtlas is a framework and toolset recommended in the State's Wetland and Riparian Area Monitoring Plan (WRAMP) of the California Wetland Monitoring Workgroup (CWMW). The tools enable users to visualize and assess the distribution, abundance, diversity, and condition of surface waters in a landscape or watershed context. The Business Plan project is developing several overview and planning memos and a final, compiled recommendation for an EcoAtlas business plan. Those documents are made available here as they are completed.
Tahoe WRAMP Demonstration: Watershed Assessment (Project)
The Tahoe WRAMP Watershed Demontration Project transfered statewide wetland monitoring and asseement tools to Sierra Nevada environmental agencies and organizations through a pilot project that assessed the distribution and abundance of wetlands, and the overall ecologcial condition of streams in two watersheds within the Lake Tahoe Basin.
Santa Rosa Plain Wetlands Profile: A Demonstration of WRAMP (Project)
The Santa Rosa Plain WRAMP project demonstrated the use of the State’s standardized monitoring and assessment tools in a North Coast watershed setting and described how the results can support watershed based management and planning decisions to protect and manage the state’s wetlands at a landscape scale.