The latest tools that come with NetMap tools, via license, 2015.
1) Riparian Zone Delineation Tool. A new tool combines attributes of in-stream wood recruitment, floodplains, wetlands (wet areas), and thermal energy loading, with certain user specifications, to identify spatially variable riparian areas, based on physical processes. Currently in beta testing, general release summer 2015.
2) Updated and Improved Habitat Intrinsic Potential Modeling. If you use intrinsic habitat potential for salmon, your maps may be out of date and inaccurate. Many existing maps of intrinsic potential for species such as coho salmon and steelhead trout were built using a decade old technology that roughly mapped valley floors (to compute channel confinement) and used lower resolution DEMs. This older technology was also contained in early versions of NetMap tools (through 2014). NetMap's new tool for more accurately mapping intrinsic habitat potential and including its use with higher resolution DEMs (such as LiDAR) should improve the accuracy of IP mapping.
3) Shade Conditioned by Stream Thermal Sensitivity. Analysts can incorporate remote sensing data on current streamside vegetation relating to shade, including conifer and hardwood basal area and tree height (using LEMMA [or use their own data]), into NetMap. These data are then used to determine the effects of current shade on in-stream thermal loading that will also take into account topography (shading), stream orientation, channel width and solar angle. The resulting shade-thermal loading index can be used to identfy areas where reduced shade may be impacting stream temperatures. A useful attribute in the context of restoration.
4) In-Stream Thermal Refugia. This mutli-faceted tool allows users to investigate how topographic, river network and vegetation controls thermal refugia at the scale of watersheds. In the tool, sources of refugia include: 1) current shade-influenced thermal loading used to identify along-channel variation in cooler water conditions, 2) aggregated shade-influenced thermal loading used to identify tributary contributions of cooler water conditions to mainstem rivers, at confluences (and conversley to identify point sources of wamer water conditions); 3) the locations in channel adjacent areas where surface elevations are similar to channel elevations to identify side channels, oxbow lakes and wetlands (and bogs) and thus to identify provisional enhanced hyporheic exchange and thus cooler temperatures (this requires the use of the valley floor mapping tool described in 3 below); 4) floodplain width, as a proxy for increased hyporheic flow and 5) the downstream reach to reach variation in floodplain width, such that valley constrictions identify the potential for upwelling flow.
5) Watershed scale wood recruitment tool. Similar to the project scale wood recruitment tool currently in NetMap (e.g., physically based model), this tool allows users to predict the spatial variation (at 100 m reaches) of present day wood recruitment potential at the scale of watersheds, thus reflecting the history of natural forest growth, timber harvest, fire and other land uses such as agriculture. An important restoration and forest management tool, users can overlap this prediction with an index of fish habitat potential and quality to identify areas for restoration (high habitat potential, low wood loading) or enhanced protection (high habitat potential, high wood loading).
6) Valley Floor Mapping Tool. Users create a raster of valley floor surface elevations referenced to channel elevations to better define valley floors and their morphology, including the occurrence of floodplains, terraces, alluvial fans, side channels, oxbow lakes and wetlands (and bogs). This tool is used in the analysis of thermal refugia (tool #2 above). In urban planning, the tool can be used to consider impervious areas with respect to naturally wet areas along streams and rivers.
7) New Stream Classification Tool. A new stream classification approach was developed for the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the Flint Hills Tall Grass Prairie in Kansas.
8) Road hydrologic connectivity/surface erosion tool update. This update allows users to import their own GPS locations (point file) for road drainage structures, thereby making the road hydrologic connectivity and road surface erosion predictions more spatially accurate, using WEPP or GRAIP-Lite).
9) Surface Erosion Tool update. This update allows users to consider erosion and impacts to aquatic habitats using detailed modeling [WEPP] for four non fire and fire management scenarios, including post fire using BARC maps in the context of BAER [see here]).
10) Fire Cascade Tool. This tool allows users to quickly search for the areas of highest fire severity, highest fire probability, post fire erosion, and the overlaps of these stressors on aquatic habitats and roads etc. – all data pre packaged, easily downloaded using tool.
11) Climate Change Vulnerability Tool. Allows users to quickly search for the highest predicted change (from historical conditions) in terms of changes in precipitation, changes in temperature, changes in snowmelt and changes in flow, and where these potential stressors intersect other watershed attributes including wildfire risk, erosion, sedimentation and aquatic habitats - all data pre packaged, easily downloaded using tool.
12) Watershed Delineation Tool. Allows users to select reaches, selected points or to import a point shapefile and then delineate individual watersheds above the defined reaches or points).
13) Custom Channel Width and Depth (allow users to apply their own, forest specific, channel width and depth regressions, rather than relying on USGS regional equations (the default)). Included in new release tools, 2015.
14) Online tool "TerrainViewer" (non arc) . This online tools allows all users of NetMap or agencies like the US Forest Service to evaluate spatial patterns (and their overlaps) of a range of watershed attributes (incl. fish, erosion, fire, climate change, grazing) at larger spatial scales (HUC 3- 6) and also at USFS jurisdictional scales (Regions-Forests-Districts), as compared to individual NetMap HUC 4 datasets that encompass about 500,000 acres each - see here for an overview. Tool is accessed from NetMap's tool bar.
15) Channel gradient-length scale tool; allows analysts to calculate channel gradients over defined length scales (50m, 100m, 1000m etc.). Can be used to identify fish migration barriers and waterfalls. Included in new release tools, Spring 2015.