Northwest Washington GIS User Group Agenda
March 17, 2006
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(.pdf of agenda with map)
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Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve
New Conference Room, 10441 BayView-Edison Road
Mt. Vernon, WA
9:00 – 9:30 Round Table
9:30 – 9:45 Break
9:45 – 10:15 Jessica Archer, WADOE
The Boundaries Project: Mapping Washington’s Shoreline for Public Access and Public Ownership (see abstract below)
10:20 – 10:50 Susan Grigsby, WADOE and Peter Gill
Watershed Analysis:
Susan Grigsby will describe the general methods for GIS analysis that Ecology has developed for characterizing watershed processes, as well as interest in this kind of approach from various directions (legislative, jurisdictional, multi-agency). Peter Gill, Whatcom County GIS analyst, will present his experience in the application of these methods for the County's shoreline update process.
www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/sea/landscape
10:55 – 11:25 Greg Hood, Skagit River System Co-op
A conceptual model of depositional, rather than erosional, tidal channel development in the rapidly prograding Skagit River Delta (Washington, USA). (see abstract below)
11:30 – 12:00 Helen Berry, WADNR
Mapping and Monitoring Kelp in Washington State
The Nearshore Habitat Program in the Department of Natural Resources maps and monitors kelp as part of a multi-agency effort to assess the health of Puget Sound called the Puget Sound Assessment and Monitoring Program (PSAMP). Helen Berry will discuss methods and findings, with a focus on spatial data collection and analysis techniques.
The Boundaries Project: Mapping Washington’s Shoreline for Public Access and Public Ownership
Jessica A. Archer* and Ryan M. McEliece*, BEACH (Beach Environmental Assessment, Communication and Health) Program, Washington State Department of Ecology, Olympia, WA.
The Boundaries Project is a GIS project to identify the location and length of all publicly accessible marine shoreline in the state of Washington. Currently, it is unknown how much of Washington’s approximately 3000 miles of shoreline is public and how much is accessible. This information is scattered amongst various government agencies and varies in quality. The Boundaries Project, scheduled to be completed in 2006, will answer many of these questions about ownership and public accessibility. The data will also combine information from the ShoreZone classification project (Nearshore Habitat Group, WADNR, 1994-2000), a geospatial dataset summarizing the physical and biological characteristics of the shoreline. With this data combination, we can answer big picture spatial questions about the distribution of biological communities, geological features, and anthropogenic development amongst public shoreline in Washington. There are many potential uses for this dataset, ranging from identifying potential restoration sites, to mapping spill response routes. How many miles of publicly accessible shoreline are in each County? How many miles of public shoreline have aquatic vegetation? How many miles of public shoreline are armored? These questions and more can be answered using the Boundaries dataset.
Greg Hood, Skagit River System Co-op
A conceptual model of depositional, rather than erosional, tidal channel development in the rapidly prograding Skagit River Delta (Washington, USA).
The origin and growth of blind tidal channels is generally considered an erosional process. This paper describes a contrasting depositional model for blind tidal channel origin and development in the Skagit River delta, Washington, USA. Chronological sequences of historical maps and photos spanning the last century show that as sediments accumulated at the river mouth, vegetation colonization created marsh islands that splintered the river into distributaries. The marsh islands coalesced when intervening distributary channels gradually narrowed and finally closed at the upstream end to form a blind tidal channel, or at mid-length to form two blind tidal channels. Channel closure was likely often mediated through gradient reduction associated with marsh progradation and channel lengthening, coupled with large woody debris blockages. Blind tidal channel evolution from distributaries was common in the Skagit marshes from 1889 to the present, and it can account for the origin of very small modern blind tidal channels. The smallest observed distributary-derived modern blind tidal channels have mean widths of 0.3m, at the resolution limit of the modern orthophotographs. While channel initiation and persistence are similar processes in erosional systems, they are different processes in this depositional model. Once a channel is obstructed and isolated from distributary flow, only tidal flow remains and channel persistence becomes a function of tidal prism and tidal or wind/wave erosion. In rapidly prograding systems like the Skagit, blind tidal channel networks are likely inherited from the antecedent distributary network. Examination of large-scale channel network geometry of such systems should therefore consider distributaries and blind tidal channels part of a common channel network and not entirely distinct elements of the system. Finally, managers of tidal habitat restoration projects generally assume an erosional model of tidal channel development. However, under circumstances conducive to progradation, depositional channel development may prevail instead.
Driving Directions
Take Interstate 5 North from Seattle or South from Bellingham to exit 230, just north of Mount Vernon. Take Highway 20 West toward Anacortes about 6 miles. Turn right at stop light onto Bay View-Edison Road (Farm House Inn Restaurant is at this intersection). Drive north about five miles, past Bay View State Park. The Breazeale Interpretive Center will be on your right, 1/4 mile past the state park.