Methodology to Integrate Military Training Land Use with Changes In Vegetative Coverage and Soil Infiltration.

Title Methodology to Integrate Military Training Land Use with Changes in Vegetative Coverage and Soil Infiltration Abstract The conceptual approach is to develop and apply modeling strategies that allow for the inclusion of military activities within the BASINS modeling framework. An additional requirement is to characterize military disturbance across the landscape resulting from those activities. This paper will outline a process to convert training data in to a usable dataset that integrates soil infiltration and vegetative cover data with training data to generate landuse impact datasets. The information presented here details work on part of a comprehensive watershed management model for Fort Benning that addresses impacts on watershed hydrology, water quality and related ecosystems resulting from military activities and natural resources management. The watershed management model will provide a tool to understand and to perform analyses that satisfy the installation's requirements under the Clean Water Act. In addition, the developed Fort Benning model will allow base managers and planners the ability to forecast the impacts of proposed land use changes within the watershed (i.e. erosion/sedimentation, nutrient and toxicants loadings, in stream water quality, and aquatic ecosystem responses). Authors Niels G. Svendsen2 Patrick N. Deliman1, Anthony S. Donigian Jr.3 , John C. Imhoff3, Eileen Regan3, Anurag Mishra3, Alan B. Anderson2 1U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Environmental Laboratory (EL), Vicksburg, MS 2 U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL), Champaign, IL 3AQUA TERRA Consultants, Mountain View, CA