Overview

This project will create a new online database, ‘WaterScars Watch,’ to help forecast and monitor post-fire threats to watersheds and critical reservoirs. ‘WaterScars Watch’ unites NASA remote-sensors and hydrological models produced by Michigan Technical University within a single, user-friendly interface to help wildfire managers assess how water resources will fare in a post burn environment. WaterScars Watch will be immensely useful for warning communities that their water resources are at risk from post-fire effects, including Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs).

Science Area

After a wildfire, the quality and health of nearby freshwater resources often suffers. Sediment loads from erosion render water undrinkable, while post-fire runoff can carry increased nutrient loads and contribute to HABs. WaterScars Watch addresses these issues, by equipping watershed managers with a new set of tools for monitoring impacts to water resources in communities impacted by wildfire. This tool will be especially useful on private or state lands that are note covered by Burned Area Emergency Response teams.

Technology

WaterScars Watch has two major components: first, physics-based algorithms originally produced to detect HABs and sediment plumes in the Great Lakes; second, data from space-based NASA sensors, which will be used to monitor water quality and vegetation recovery within the watershed. These components will be the backbone of an open-source, data-driven science tool capable of incorporating future cutting-edge algorithms and data sets. The initial database will feature data on 50 large watersheds in the western U.S. and an ‘alert’ feature warning communities and water managers of compromise water resources.

Advancements

• Novel WaterScars Watch database provides water managers with a one-stop-shop for monitoring water quality, unifying a broad network of modelling tools and data.
• Modified HAB detection algorithms originally designed to monitor water quality in the Great Lakes will enable enhanced water quality monitoring in smaller reservoirs, protecting communities from HABs.
• Post-fire recovery will use Earth observations to monitor watershed recovery over time, ensuring communities maintain up-to-date assessments of watershed health and risk levels.

Principal Investigator

Mary Ellen Miller is a Research Engineer and Scientist at Michigan Technical University (MTU). She enjoys solving problems in the fields of GIS and Environmental Remote Sensing and Modeling. Miller’s research interests include developing practical methods of supporting land management with remote sensing and environmental modeling, large scale mapping of vegetation, land cover and land use change, and developing and improving environmental models.

Miller is assisted by Mike Billmire, Mike Sayers, and Robert Shuchman (MTU).