Saving Puget Sound > Actions > Puget Sound Characterization Project

Puget Sound Characterization Project

What is a ‘characterization?’

We use the term 'characterization' to describe the results of integrating information from several environmental assessments to provide an ecosystem view of the landscape. A characterization and other science-based information is useful for helping local governments develop:

• Restoration and protection strategies
• Land-use plans
• Designations and regulations
• Development standards

Puget Sound Characterization

The Puget Sound Characterization is a regional-scale tool that highlights the most important areas to protect, and restore, and those most suitable for development. The program, funded by an EPA grant, is a collaborative effort between Ecology, the Puget Sound Partnership, and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The Characterization covers the entire Puget Sound drainage area — from the Olympic Mountains on the west to the Cascades on the east, including the San Juan Islands.

The Characterization includes watershed assessments of:

• Water flow (surface storage, recharge, and discharge)
• Water quality (sediment, nutrients, pathogens, and metals)
• Landscape assessments of fish and wildlife habitat in three environments:
  • Terrestrial
  • Freshwater
  • Marine

The assessments prioritize small watersheds, or habitat areas, relative to one another for their protection and restoration value.

The program should help planners in the Puget Sound region make better decisions about land use and effective protection, restoration, and conservation strategies for the Sound’s natural resources by:

• Describing a multi-scale framework for land-use planning that integrates information on water flow, water quality, and habitat
• Providing results from assessments that can help guide the protection and restoration of watersheds and the habitats they support
• Explaining how to interpret and apply the results of these assessments.

Water assessment status

The water flow assessment for each of the large Puget Sound watersheds, or Water Resource Inventory Areas (WRIAs) is complete. Maps of results and data for water flow assessments are now available for download. The water quality assessments for sediment are currently available and the others should also be complete and available for download by June 30, 2012. The files are contained in a geodatabase that includes:

• Final results for two assessments (water flow and water quality)
• Source data used in the analyses
• All intermediate data layers

For a general introduction to the water assessments, see our guide for local planners.

 

Puget Sound Watershed Characterization: Introduction to the Water Flow Assessment for Puget Sound, July 2010. This document provides examples of how planners can use the information for planning decisions and how it is currently being applied. It contains a general description of:

• The water flow assessment
• How the information can be used
• Intended users
• Planning processes it can support

For a detailed description for the characterization, the final technical document for the Puget Sound Characterization Project is now available. The document describes methods, models, and analyses for the water flow and water quality assessment of Puget sound WRIAs, as well as methods and guidance for applying the model results. The document is available here.

Habitat assessments

Peer review of the habitat assessments is complete, and included models for:

• A landscape assessment for terrestrial wildlife.
• A freshwater fish and wildlife assessment.
• An assessment for marine and near-shore fish and wildlife.

The final document describing the habitat assessment methods, models, analyses, and guidance for application of results to Puget Sound watersheds will be released June 2012.

Future grant supported work

Ecology, the Partnership, and Fish and Wildlife continue to work on:

• Developing an outreach process for potential users, including a web-based display for assessment results.
• Initiating our watershed technical team to assist local planners in applying the characterization results — including using the data for developing shoreline programs and comprehensive plans.
• Validating model results in pilot watersheds using finer-scale hydrologic models.
• Supporting a grant program to fund protection and restoration of watershed resources by local governments.

Questions?

Colin F. Hume, Coordinator
Watershed Characterization Technical Assistance Team
Washington State Department of Ecology, Northwest Regional Office
(425) 649-7139
colin.hume@ecy.wa.gov