Integral Consulting Inc. was recently awarded a subcontract to provide the National Park Service with a database and report describing watershed characteristics for all sub-basins within three national parks/preserves in Alaska: Denali, Wrangell-St. Elias, and Yukon-Charley. Integral’s task will involve synthesizing multiple data sets describing the topography, climate, geology, and hydrological characteristics of the watersheds and performing an innovative statistical analysis of these data to support federal decision-making for the National Park Service’s Inventory & Monitoring Program.
In addition to using geographic information systems (GIS) to analyze watershed characteristics, Integral geologist David Mixon will also perform a hierarchical cluster analysis of data from watersheds throughout the parks. Cluster analysis—a statistical approach that uses synthesized geographic data for each basin to produce a basin typology—will be used to determine an optimal sampling and analysis plan to characterize water quality and habitat conditions for these immense and remote parks. According to Mixon, using this type of cluster analysis on a watershed scale is a unique approach to the problem of how to efficiently sample and monitor millions of acres of rivers and streams throughout this vast Alaskan wilderness, where access is extremely limited and hydrologic conditions can change in a matter of days.
Darcie Garland-Renn, George Patton, and William Locke, P.E., will be assisting David Mixon with data analysis and presentation. For more information on this and other watershed projects, contact William Locke at wlocke@integral-corp.com.