Abby Frazier
Thomas Giambelluca
Qi Chen
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI
Donna Delparte
Jonathan Price
University of Hawaii at Hilo, Hilo, HI
Water Resources
Monday March 5, 2012 - 3:15 to 4:30 pm
The Hawaiian Islands have one of the most diverse rainfall patterns on earth. Knowledge of these patterns is vitally important for a number of resource management issues, including the restoration and protection of native ecosystems, ground water and surface water development and protection, and planning for the effects of global warming. A new set of digital maps of mean monthly and annual rainfall from 1978-2007 for the major Hawaiian Islands has been developed. A monthly rainfall database was assembled with over 1,000 stations, using several gap-filling techniques to address missing values in the station records. "Virtual raingage" sites were estimated in remote areas based on patterns of natural vegetation. The final gridded maps were created using a Bayesian data fusion method that merged the station data with three predictor maps derived from Radar rainfall, MM5 model rainfall, and PRISM rainfall maps.
A new interactive website was created to make the rainfall maps, data, and related information easily accessible. Users can download map images, GIS and Google Earth layers, and station data or obtain information via an interactive map. To access the website, visit:
http://rainfall.geography.hawaii.edu/.
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label climate change. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Hawai'i's fluvial systems: Using GIS to assess current conditions and identify management strategies in a changing climate
Ralph Tingley
Dana Infante
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Richard MacKenzie
USDA Forest Service, Institute of Pacific Islands Foresty, Hilo, HI
Robert Nishimoto
Division of Aquatic Resources, Honolulu, HI
James Parham
Parham and Associates Environmental Consulting, Gallatin, TN
Water Resources
Monday March 5, 2012 - 3:15 to 4:30 pm
During summer 2010, Michigan State University partnered with the Hawai'i Fish Habitat Partnership (HFHP) and other organizations to complete a state-wide assessment characterizing Hawai'i stream condition. This assessment, conducted in support of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan, followed a landscape approach and used best available GIS data to characterize disturbances to stream habitat. We sought expert knowledge from local partners to select anthropogenic disturbance datasets, which were attributed to local and network stream catchments associated with individual reaches of the 1:24K National Hydrography Dataset. For each reach, disturbances at both scales were combined into a single cumulative score. Results of this work are being incorporated into the Atlas of Hawaiian Watersheds and are also being used by NOAA to assess effects of inland disturbances on priority coastal habitat. Despite its immediate utility, a refinement to the assessment is under way. Currently, we are developing a landscape-based classification of the ecological potential of Hawaii stream reaches. This classification will incorporate natural landscape variables that are unalterable by humans and climate variables known to be important in structuring physical and biological characteristics of streams. We will use a multi-step process to select influential variables and will rely on biological data to ensure ecological meaning of resulting groups. With streams classified into specific groups, we can characterize vulnerability to climate change on a reach by reach basis. Additionally, we can use the classification to refine the condition assessment, allowing managers to consider disturbance in the context of stream type.
Dana Infante
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Richard MacKenzie
USDA Forest Service, Institute of Pacific Islands Foresty, Hilo, HI
Robert Nishimoto
Division of Aquatic Resources, Honolulu, HI
James Parham
Parham and Associates Environmental Consulting, Gallatin, TN
Water Resources
Monday March 5, 2012 - 3:15 to 4:30 pm
During summer 2010, Michigan State University partnered with the Hawai'i Fish Habitat Partnership (HFHP) and other organizations to complete a state-wide assessment characterizing Hawai'i stream condition. This assessment, conducted in support of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan, followed a landscape approach and used best available GIS data to characterize disturbances to stream habitat. We sought expert knowledge from local partners to select anthropogenic disturbance datasets, which were attributed to local and network stream catchments associated with individual reaches of the 1:24K National Hydrography Dataset. For each reach, disturbances at both scales were combined into a single cumulative score. Results of this work are being incorporated into the Atlas of Hawaiian Watersheds and are also being used by NOAA to assess effects of inland disturbances on priority coastal habitat. Despite its immediate utility, a refinement to the assessment is under way. Currently, we are developing a landscape-based classification of the ecological potential of Hawaii stream reaches. This classification will incorporate natural landscape variables that are unalterable by humans and climate variables known to be important in structuring physical and biological characteristics of streams. We will use a multi-step process to select influential variables and will rely on biological data to ensure ecological meaning of resulting groups. With streams classified into specific groups, we can characterize vulnerability to climate change on a reach by reach basis. Additionally, we can use the classification to refine the condition assessment, allowing managers to consider disturbance in the context of stream type.
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