Are there tools that can help us model key ecological and socioeconomic processes?
Watersheds Many pollutants to the marine environment, particularly excess nutrients and sediments, come from terrestrial sources. Effective watershed management is therefore critical to marine EBM, and watershed models are an essential part of the EBM toolkit. Watershed models use factors such as rainfall, land cover, soil type, impervious surface coverage, and slope to predict runoff from watersheds into bodies of water. When coupled with marine ecosystem models, watershed models can help predict how changes in land use (such as urban growth and conversion of agricultural lands) and pollution management (such as improved sewage treatment and fertilizer application) will affect marine ecosystems. Tools that help predict these types of impacts range from relatively simple to quite complex. A few examples of available watershed models include: • Impervious Surface Analysis Tool (ISAT) – Estimates the percentage of impervious surface and, from this, water quality in a user-defined area. •
