Interpreting or reading landscapes is often question driven.
- Where are the best fish habitats located in a watershed?
- Where are the largest floodplains?
- Where does urbanization impact the best aquatic habitats?
- Which areas are most prone to shallow landslides?
- Where are forest roads most at risk from failure?
- Where is the highest potential for road surface erosion and sediment delivery to streams?
- Where does the greatest wildfire risk overlap the greatest climate change?
And so on.
This portal into interpreting landscapes, through questions, is organized by general landscape and land use topic. Using questions, analysts are directed to a wide range of NetMap tools and data, via technical help. If you cannot locate your question, even generally, dive into the technical help materials for guidance. Don't see what you need? Contact us.
Topic 1: Aquatic/Riparian Habitats
- Where is the best fish habitat located for different species (anadromous, resident)?
- How can I locate areas of concentrated high quality fish habitats, e.g., habitat core areas?
- Where are my aquatic biological hotspots located?
- Which channels would support beaver?
- Where are the channels located with the greatest habitat diversity?
- Where are the largest and most productive floodplains located in my watershed?
- Map estuary habitats.
- Calculate the cumulative length and quality of fish habitat upstream (or downstream) of any point in the river network (including all road crossings).
- Classify, by subbasins, aquatic or fish habitats across a large watershed or landscape.
- Where in my watershed are channels with the greatest susceptibity to disturbances (or dynamics)?
- Identify where the best habitats intersect potential environmental stressors.
Topic 2: Channel Types, Channel Response, Channel Network
- What are the different channel types in my watershed and which ones are the most sensitive to land use impacts?
- Which areas of the channel network are most prone to sedimentation and flooding?
- How many stream orders do I have in my watershed?
- What is my watershed's drainage density?
- What different types of channel geometry do I have in my landscape?
- Which parts of my channel network are most prone to disturbance (floods, sedimentation, landslide impacts), an important consideration in the context of in-stream restoration?
- What types of information can help with my in-stream monitoring program?
- What types of information will help with my floodplain restoration activities? How can I locate floodplains that have been obscured by development?
- How can NetMap help with in-stream restoration?
- How can I identify estuaries or portions of them that have been obscured by development and in need of restoration?
Topic 3: Topography/Erosion/Slope Stability
- Which hillsides in my watershed are most prone to landsliding?
- Which headwater streams are most susceptible to debris flows or gullying?
- Which fish streams are most susceptible to debris flow impacts?
- How can I identify large landslides and earthflows?
- Which areas in my watershed are most at risk from debris flows?
- Which landslide prone areas are most sensitive to land uses?
- Which structures are at risk from landsliding and debris flows?
- What parts of my watershed are most likely to contribute sediment to river channels?
- Where is the highest surface erosion potential with a high likelihood of sediment delivery to streams and rivers?
- Classify watershed subbasins by inherent erosion potential.
- What proportion of landslide potential originates from particular areas of my watershed?
Topic 4: Human Infrastructure - Roads/Pipelines
- Which subbasins across the landscape have the highest road density?
- Which individual hillsides (approximately 0.1 km2 [24 acres]) have the highest road density?
- Create a fish-eye view of road density.
- Which roads have the highest road drainage diversion potential?
- Which road segments have the highest road surface erosion potential?
- Which road segments/energy corridors are located on potentially unstable hillsides?
- Which road segments/energy corridors are most likely to trigger debris flows in steep headwater streams?
- Which road segments/energy corridors are most susceptible to damage from debris flows?
- Where do roads/energy corridors intersect floodplains?
- Where do roads/energy corridors intersect quality aquatic/fish habitat?
- What is the cumulative habitat length and quality above every road crossing (or below every road crossing)?
Topic 5: Riparian Management
- Which streams are most sensitive to radiation loading if the riparian vegetation was altered or destroyed?
- At a point in time (this year), how does variation in riparian conditions across my watershed affect in-stream wood loading?
- Using forest growth predictions, calculate how in-stream wood loading will vary over time (decades to centuries).
- What types of in-stream wood jams would I expect, given variation in riparian vegetation?
- Could predicted fish habitat quality influence the design of riparian management, including buffers?
- Should I consider erosion potential in the design of riparian management?
Topic 6: Wildfire (Pre and Post)
- Where in my watershed is the greatest chance of wildfire? Where is the highest 10% or 1% of fire risk located?
- Where is the predicted highest fire severity located across the landscape?
- Where does the highest chance of fire overlap with the highest fire severity? Where are those stressors located?
- Where does the highest fire severity overlap with the highest chance of post wildfire erosion?
- Where does the highest fire risk overlap with the highest fire severity, and where do those overlap with the best aquatic habitats?
- Where in my watershed is the highest burn severity located? Top 10%, top 1% etc.
- Where is the post fire surface erosion potential the most extreme?
- Where is the post fire landslide and debris flow risk the highest?
- At what locations does the highest fire severity overlap with the highest erosion potential, and where do those locations overlap with quality aquatic habitats?
- Where do roads intersect burned areas with the highest erosion potential?
- Which streams in the burned area have the highest exposure to increased thermal loading because of loss of riparian vegetation?
Topic 7: Climate Change Vulnerability
- Identify the largest predicted climate change in your watershed for temperature, precipitation, snow accumulation and summer and winter flows.
- Where do the largest predicted changes in temperature and flow intersect the highest fire risk?
- Where are the largest changes in summer flow predicted to occur and where does they intersect sensitive and valuable aquatic habitats?
- Where are the largest changes in winter flow predicted to occur and where do they intersect valuable habitats and infrastructure, such as roads?