A Decision-Support System to Assess Surface-Water Resources in Massachusetts

Federal, State and local water supply, regulatory, and planning agencies require easy-to use, technically-defensible, Decision-Support (DS) applications that can evaluate impacts of proposed water withdrawals, determine baseline stream flow conditions needed for sustainability of aquatic habitat, and estimate inflows to drinking-water-supply reservoirs for safe yield analyses at ungaged locations. An interactive, point-and-click DS application is developed in combination with a geographic-information system to address these needs. The DS application estimates unimpacted daily stream flow at any user-selected location - gaged or ungaged - on a perennial stream in Massachusetts.