What types of data are used for prediction in SPARROW models?
|Back to Top| SPARROW modeling requires the integration of many types of geospatial data for use as explanatory variables which are considered as either constituent sources or delivery factors. Sources might include certain land types such as urban area, or known contaminant sources such as sewage treatment plants. Delivery terms can include any basin characteristic that may be associated with natural attenuation. For example, denitrification is often associated with certain soil characteristics and the spatial pattern of those soil characteristics is often related to that of constituent loads. In some cases delivery terms might also be associated with enhanced delivery. For example, high basin slope might cause more rapid flows which could increase the delivery of constituents. Delivery is also influenced by the water time of travel in streams, which can be estimated from published USGS time-of-travel studies (e.g., Reed and Stuckey, 2001). Examples of some geospatial data sets used t
