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Mapping Land Disturbance from Energy Development

Project Number: 9716D1Q
Project Chief: Terry Kenney, USGS Salt Lake City, Utah
Cooperators: Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum, Bureau of Land Management
Period of Project: May 2007- September 2010

Problem

The Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) in many areas is underlain by a thick sequence of Mesozoic marine and lacustrine formations that are a significant source of salinity to water resources in the basin. The past decade has seen an increased focus on energy development in the West. The Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Forum and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are concerned that this development could increase salinity loads in the UCRB. Regional-scale compilation, synthesis, and analysis of data defining development-related land disturbance and water quality in the UCRB is needed to improve understanding of the potential cumulative effects of projected energy development plans on the total dissolved-solids load to the Colorado River and its tributaries.

Objectives

The proposed study will consolidate local and regional data sets of land disturbance (areas of existing and planned disturbance in NEPA and other documents) in the UCRB in to a single land-disturbance data set and will test the statistical significance of land disturbance on contributing salinity to the surface water in the UCRB.

Relevance and Benefits

This study represents an initial step in data compilation and analysis that will allow for assessment of the effects that land-use practices associated with current and future energy development have on UCRB water quality. Understanding and modeling how land disturbance affects natural systems is a key focus area of current USGS science direction. Results of the study also will provide resource managers with decision support systems (i.e., the statistical significance model) and easier access to aggregated hydrologic data supporting those systems. The results of this assessment will provide BLM access to a synthesis of data that can be used to develop assessment and predictive models and other tools representing a range of landscape scales.

Approach

Existing and planned land-disturbance data are not regularly compiled at the state or regional level and the task of assembling these data will be a major focus of the proposed work. Existing medium resolution data sets like Southwest Regional GAP and 2001 National Land cover data will be combined with the best available regional and local data sources to delineate areas of anthropogenic land disturbance. The integrated BLM data will be used to delineate the fraction of total land disturbance associated with energy development. Randomized analysis of higher resolution aerial or satellite imagery will be used to assess errors and to develop statistical methods to correct errors. Land disturbance data will be integrated with basin characteristic data sets for the UCRB in a uniform, well-documented GIS data base. This data set will be added to the UCRB SPARROW model of dissolved solids to test the significance of land disturbance as a source of salinity in the USCB.

Products

Results of the proposed study will be made available in a web-accessible GIS database that is populated with SPARROW model input and output data. Land-surface disturbance data will be compiled in GIS format and be available in a web-accessible database. Database design will ensure that future data acquisitions specific to salinity in the UCRB can be incorporated. A USGS Scientific Investigations Report will be published documenting the methods and procedures used in developing the land-disturbance database and the assessment of the UCRB TDS SPARROW model for predicting TDS loads from land disturbance. This assessment may result in the need to collect additional TDS data and an enhanced monitoring network.