Technical Approach

Field data were collected on three broad land-use types: (1) rangeland, (2) unimproved roads, and (3) firebreak roads.

A set of decision tools, process models, and geographic information system (GIS) databases was assembled, linked, and integrated as an adaptive management framework to minimize constraints on training exercises while ensuring protection of watersheds. The decision tools can assist in optimizing the design and implementation of operations, management plans, and policies in the face of uncertainties. They are supported by state-of-the-art GIS and distributed hydrologic process and overland erosion/transport models linked to tailored remotely sensed and conventional databases. Military training activities that are non-point sources of pollution were identified using sequences of remotely sensed images to detect change at the pixel level, such as a loss of vegetation, and isolate probable conditions (training activities or range fire) contributing to the change. The level of impact was quantified in the form of hydrologic model input parameters, enabling the quantity and quality of non-point source runoff from alternative operations to be estimated. The practical utility of the adaptive management framework for managing training operation environmental impacts in arid and semiarid regions was demonstrated at the Yakima Training Center, Washington.