Raystown GIS Watershed Management Study

The Raystown Branch of the Juniata River is 124 miles long and drains approximately 963 square miles of rough mountainous country. In this largely rural area, land is generally forested along the steeper elevations and cultivated in the valley bottoms. The Raystown Study expanded an earlier effort conducted for the Juniata River Basin to provide more detail about problems specific to the Raystown Watershed. An important element of this project was analysis of emerging agricultural trends toward higher density livestock operations. The Louis Berger Group (Berger) created a watershed information management system using a Geographical Information System (GIS) to calculate current nitrogen (N) and phosphorous (P) runoff, land use percentages and future scenarios. Spatial relationships between soil suitability, location of septic systems and current agricultural application rates of manure and fertilizer were all incorporated into the GIS to estimate non point and point source loading into the system. Additionally, a lumped parameter numerical simulation was run to calculate N and P runoff for comparison to the empirical GIS approach.

Major study tasks included:

• GIS analysis of nitrogen and phosphorus (N&P) agriculture hotspots based upon intrinsic characteristics of land.
  
• Development of an empirically based GIS model to determine theoretical density limits for concentrated animal feeding operations based upon land required for agronomic application of animal wastes. In addition, the GIS was designed to analyze sedimentation potential in the watershed.
  
• Development of a numerical simulation of total N, P and sediment runoff produced in the Basin using GWLF and integrating this model with the GIS.
  
• Creation of an Arc/Info GIS relational database containing all environmental and watershed information.
  
• Documentation of problems, needs and opportunities affecting the watershed including nutrients, sediments, acid mine drainage and other water pollutants; status and need for storm water management and flood control measures; current and future effects of septic systems and wastewater treatment systems; and opportunities for ecological restoration.
  
• Preparation of future scenarios analysis to project new N and P loads for the basin using the GIS empirical approach.
  
• Development and comparison management measures for all identified problems, needs and opportunities including those associated with agricultural and human development in the watershed.

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