Rapid Watershed Assessments

North Dakota NRCS is in the process of developing a Rapid Watershed Assessments (RWA) for each of the state’s 8-digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC-8) sub-basins.  RWA’s provide an overview of each HUC’s current natural resource condition and concerns.  Each RWA organizes the resource information into a document that local conservationists, units of government, watershed groups, and others can use to identify conservation opportunities, set priorities, and determine the best actions to achieve their goals.  Each assessment provides a description of the sub basin’s natural resources, resource concerns, and conservation needs. RWAs typically contain the following information:

• Physical Resources

• Land Use and Land Cover

• Water Quality Conditions Report

• Soil, Stream, Precipitation Data

• Resource Concerns

• Census and Social Data

Most of the data for the RWAs is collected through NRCS National Resources Inventories, Census of Agriculture, North Dakota state agencies, including North Dakota Department of Health, and several Geographic Information System (GIS) map layers provided by several state and federal agencies.

LINKS

The Rapid Watershed Assessments (RWAs) for both the James Headwaters and Upper James River are located on the ND NRCS website.  These assessments may be found at: http://www.nd.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/Watershed_Approach/Rapid_Watershed_Assessments.html

 

Direct links to the pdf documents are:

 

James Headwaters - ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/ND/Watershed%20Approach/James%20River%20Headwaters.pdf

 

Upper James - ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/ND/Watershed%20Approach/Upper%20James%20River.pdf