GreatLakesTributaryModelingProgramWeb‐basedSedimentTransportToolsTrainingFactSheet

   The Great Lakes Tributary Modeling Program 

under the 516(e) Authority enables the U.S. Army 

Corps of Engineers to develop sediment transport 

models to assist state and local agencies with 

planning and implementation of measures for soil 

conservation and nonpoint source pollution 

prevention. These models can be developed for all 

tributaries to the Great Lakes that discharge to 

federal navigation channels and Areas of Concern 

(AOC’s). The ultimate goal of the program is to 

reduce the loading of sediment and pollutants to tributaries in order to enhance Great Lakes water 

quality, help delist Great Lakes AOC’s, and reduce the need for navigation dredging.  

In addition to the sediment transport models that we have developed in the past, Buffalo District is 

currently providing training to all those that have an interest in sediment transport and have a hand in 

watershed planning. The goal of the training is to teach participants how to use web‐based sediment 

transport tools to better understand sediment issues and make informed decisions within their 

watersheds. These are typically one day workshops that are offered to Soil and Water Conservation 

Districts, state and local agencies, conservation groups, universities, and individuals in the agricultural 

industry. A great benefit of these trainings is that they bring diverse groups of people together to help 

solve sediment transport issues. Typically these workshops only require the use of small computer labs 

with internet access, so we have the flexibility to coordinate these trainings very easily.  

The web‐based sediment tools that we offer training for include: 

Digital Watershed 

High Impact Targeting (HIT) 

Long‐Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment Low Impact Development (L‐THIA LID) 

Web‐based Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) 

As a preventative measure to reducing the need for costly dredging and delisting AOC’s, the Great Lake 

Tributary Modeling Program is 100% federally funded, and is one of the only programs that investigate 

the prevention of sedimentation issues. For more information regarding these web‐based sediment 

transport tools, or to schedule a training session, please contact Brent LaSpada, the 516(e) Buffalo 

District Program Manager: 

Phone: 716‐879‐4446 

Email: brent.r.laspada@usace.army.mil 

1405 S. Harrison Rd.

101 Manly Miles Building

East Lansing, MI 48823-5243

INSTITUTE OF WATER RESEARCH

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Many of the programs being developed by the Institute are evolving into the National

Resources Spatial Decision Support System to allow users to view any watershed in the

continental United States. Called DIGITAL WATERSHED (DW), the system allows users to

access an area by state, address, or watershed. A number of tools are incorporated into

the program including a user-friendly adaptation of the EPA Basins tool, direct linkage of

the selected watershed to rectified aerial photography through Google Earth, and

automatic forwarding of a delineated watershed to a hydrologic model that computes

runoff, peak flow and associated nonpoint source pollution.

The complexity and urgency of the world's environmental problems are going to be

overwhelming if we don’t do something effective to improve our collective abilities to deal

with complex and rapid change of our environment.

Here at the INSTITUTE OF WATER RESEARCH, we are building an environmental software

system using the distributed computing technologies to build our collective abilities. To

create a system to record patterns at different scales and understand different processes

that shape these patterns is no easy task but it can be done if we aim high and act

incrementally. This software will continue to grow with the ideal of once developed; new

knowledge of our planet in the form of databases and models can be integrated into the

system. We hope that this system will become part of our national environmental

computing infrastructure and will also be able to answer questions about our

environment based on information entered.

Since the watershed is considered to be the basic unit for the environment, we have

developed the online digital watershed website as our starting point, which is designed to

provide both a centralized information repository and an online computing center for

watersheds in the United States. This site is based on the comprehensive database of 8-

digit watersheds for the whole continent of the United States, which is included in the EPA

BASINS system. The database contains all regulated facilities, river network, DEM, state

soil and other data layers. The digital watershed site is interconnected with Michigan's local

level watershed information system by the scaling function. You can access the Michigan's

local level watershed information system at http://www.hydra.iwr.msu.edu/water/.

DIGITAL WATERSHED

Please direct questions and

comments to Yi Shi.

shiyi1@msu.edu

Phone: 517-353-3742

Fax: 517-353-1812

Website: www.iwr.msu.edu

Check Digital Watershed out at: http://iwr.msu.edu/dw

1405 S. Harrison Rd.

101 Manly Miles Building

East Lansing, MI 48823-5243

INSTITUTE OF WATER RESEARCH

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

HIT stands for HIGH IMPACT TARGETING. It is a web-based decision support tool

for multi-scale prioritization of agricultural areas contributing sediment to the

Great Lakes and their tributaries. HIT combines an erosion model (RUSLE -

Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation1) and a sediment delivery model (SEDMOD -

Spatially Explicit Delivery Model2) to calculate annual erosion and sediment loading

to streams. This combination yields two outputs: field-scale maps identifying areas

at risk for erosion and sediment loading, and tonnage estimates for erosion and

sediment loading at watershed scales. This on-line tool allows users to interact with

these data spatially, and evaluate the potential impacts of best management

practices (BMPs) on selected watersheds.

HIT’s maps of erosion and sediment loading risk are displayed over a Microsoft

Bing Maps backdrop, allowing users to evaluate HIT’s estimates over high

resolution aerial photography in 2D and 3D, and through low-elevation Bird’s Eye

photography (where available). Users can also generate watershed-scale priority maps of BMP cost-effectiveness to aid in the development of watershed

management plans. HIT data, along with detailed metadata, is downloadable for use

in desktop GIS for more in-depth spatial analysis.

HIT’s development was funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the

United Stated Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service.

HIGH IMPACT TARGETING

Please direct questions and

comments to Glenn O’Neil.

oneilg@msu.edu

517-353-8587

HIT

Check HIT out at: http://iwr.msu.edu/hit2

Phone: 517-353-3742

Fax: 517-353-1812

Website: www.iwr.msu.edu

Introduction to Long-Term Hydrologic Impact Assessment Low Impact Development (L-THIA LID) Model

Larry Theller (E-Mail: theller@purdue.edu) and Bernard Engel (E-Mail: engelb@purdue.edu) Purdue University

https://engineering.purdue.edu/~lthia/LID

Purpose: Low Impact Development (LID) practices aim to

reduce the impacts of stormwater and pollutants from land

development. The goal of LID is to maintain, as closely as

possible, the predevelopment hydrologic regime for new

developments or move toward the original hydrologic regime

in existing urban areas.

L-THIA LID is an easy to use screening tool that evaluates

the benefits of LID practices. The Long-Term Hydrologic

Impact Assessment (L-THIA) model estimates the average

annual runoff and pollutant loads for land use configurations

based on more than 30 years of daily precipitation data

combined with soils and land use data for an area.

It estimates long-term average annual runoff for land use

and soil combinations, based on actual long-term climate data

for that area. By using many years of climate data in the

analysis, L-THIA focuses on the average impact, rather than

an extreme year or storm.

The model produces runoff depth and volume along with

nonpoint source pollution loading of the area.

Key Features:

All versions model runoff and 14 nonpoint source pollution types in surface waters.

An overview/screening model. Identifies need for more detailed modeling.

Does not require detailed data input.

Provides “what if” alternatives evaluation scenarios.

Provides description of runoff and pollutant loads in tabular form, as well as graphical representations.

Significance: As a quick and easy-to-use approach, L-

THIA's results can be used to generate community awareness

of potential long-term problems and to support planning aimed

at minimizing disturbance of critical areas. L-THIA is an ideal

tool to assist in the evaluation of potential effects of land use

change and to identify the best location of a particular land use

so as to have minimum impact on a community's natural

environment.

FOR FURTHER READING:

Tutorials and references: https://engineering.purdue.edu/~lthia/LID/tutorial

Link: https://engineering.purdue.edu/~lthia/LID

Copyright 2012 Purdue University

L-THIA provides relative estimates of change of runoff and nonpoint source pollutants due to

land use change.

Difference in relative runoff due to land use differences.

The L-THIA LID model consists of two screening levels for the LID approach.

Basic screening allows the users to adjust the percent of imperviousness for

particular landuses. Lot-level screening consists of a suite of LID practices such as

bio-retention (rain gardens), porous pavement, narrowing impervious surfaces

(streets, sidewalks and driveways) and vegetated rooftops. These practices intercept,

redirect, and slow the movement of runoff and pollutants moving through a

watershed.

A Low-Impact Development web-based Spreadsheet version of LTHIA is

available at https://engineering.purdue.edu/~lthia/LID.

TheWaterErosionPredictionProject(WEPP)ModelOnlineGeographicInformationSystems(GIS)Interface The WEPP online GIS Interface uses the open layers software to assist in setting up WEPP watershed simulations.  The online version of WEPP is primarily used for small scale watersheds typically within agricultural settings to determine the channel network, delineate the watershed and determine flow paths within the watershed.  It is applicable at the field scale with input from climate, management, soil and topography.  The WEPP model is used to predict soil loss and runoff from the watershed.   

 The WEPP model can be located at http://milford.nserl.purdue.edu/ol/wepp2/