Economic and Environmental Impact Assessment Using a Watershed Management Decision Support Tool

A Watershed Management Decision Support System (WAMADSS) is used to evaluate the economic and environmental consequences of alternative land use/management practices (LUMPs). WAMADSS consists of three components: (1) a GIS, (2) an economic model, and (3) two environmental simulation models. Specifically, ARC/INFO serves as the engine for integrating the Cost and Return Estimator (CARE) program, the AGricultural NonPoint source (AGNPS) pollution model and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) in a seamless interactive decision support system. The three components are accessed through a graphical user interface which enables decision makers to generate scenarios. Specifically, the user changes LUMPs and WAMADSS generates model input files, executes the programs and imports the output into the GIS. Tabular and spatial results are then viewed side-by-side for different scenarios.