Water Quality Vulnerability in the Ozarks using Landscape Ecology Metrics: Upper White River Browser (v2.0)

Landscape indicator maps have been produced by interpreting landscape-scale (i.e., broad-scale) ecological metrics among watersheds of the Upper White River, which are the first geospatial models of water-quality vulnerability in the Ozarks. The maps have been developed by using Partial Least Squares (PLS) analyses, a priori information about landscape conditions and the existing field water-quality monitoring data, remote sensing information, and water-quality data described in this browser. The PLS analyses were conducted at multiple geographic scales, from site-specific water quality measurements (fine-scale) to broader scale watershed analyses. The 244 subwatersheds represent the drainage area where water-quality measurements were conducted, and were used to increase the precision and accuracy of water-quality vulnerability predictions.

The results of PLS analyses provide watershed managers with the first broad-scale predictions that can be used to explain how land-cover type, land-cover configuration, environmental change, and human activities may affect the chemical and biological characteristics of surface water in the Upper White River region. The landscape factors that were used to conduct the PLS analyses are viewable in the Landscape Metrics - Analysis by Decade Status Maps and the Base Data Maps sections of the browser.