August 30, 2021

Protecting Park Infrastructure in the Face of Climate Change

Developing A GIS-based Geospatial Decision Support Tool for Assessing Climate Change Impacts on Flood risks in Northern Cascadia Road Networks, TA P13AC00706

PI: Dr. Erkan Istanbulluoglu, Graduate Research Assistant: Ronda Strauch, University of Washington; ATR: Dr. Regina Rochefort, North Cascades National Park

In 2011, North Cascades National Park Service Complex partnered with Mount Rainier National Park, Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, and Okanagan-Wenatchee National Forest to establish The North Cascadia Adaptation Partnership (NCAP) to partner science and management for more effective management of public lands in the North/Central Cascade Mountains. NCAP members conducted vulnerability assessments on four key resource issues in 2011/2012: access, wildlife, vegetation, and fish and fish habitat. Subsequent to this, resource managers and scientists from the NPS, USFS, Washington State Department of Transportation, and the UW gathered to discuss how to apply adaptation strategies and tactics to specific areas within North Cascades National Park (NOCA) and Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (MBS). In the workshop, lack of comprehensive data on culverts was identified as the top priority for filling information gaps vital for addressing future challenges imposed by changing hydrologic regimes where roads intersect streams.

The CESU project developed a flexible GIS-based geospatial database (GIS-Hydroads) that is integrated with a regional hydrologic model developed at the University of Washington (UW) to aid in decision making related to road infrastructure (initially culverts) associated with flooding risks under climate change. GIS-Hydroads was designed in a modular fashion to meet the priority needs of federal agencies and is expandable with future technical capabilities and transferable throughout the western US. Proof-of-concept applications of GIS-Hydroads was presented in a representative basin along the west slope of the North Cascade mountains of Washington, where preliminary analysis illustrated the practicability of the database and inventory approach, leading refinement of the culvert database, inventory, and assessment. 

Published Report:

Strauch, R. L., E. Istanbulluoglu, R. Rochefort, Z. Duran, and K. Purnell. 2018. Developing a GIS-based geospatial decision support tool for assessing climate change impacts on flood risks in Northern Cascadia road networks. Natural Resource Report NPS/NOCA/NRR—2018/1808. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado.