Decision Support for Salmonid Recovery

Decision support tools can be used by coastal managers to help address salmonid recovery. The North Coast Watershed Assessment Program (NCWAP) has used a customized spatial decision support tool to assist in planning efforts for watershed management and salmonid recovery in Northern California.

There are three required components to their decision support tool: geographic information systems (GIS), the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) system, and customized knowledge bases. GIS stores the data and provides the platform for computation and spatial analysis. The knowledge bases, which have been developed by NCWAP and are the product of extensive scientific research and peer review, define the parameters of and relationships within the system that is being modeled (habitat suitability for salmonids). The EMDS system is the component that ties everything together, allowing the knowledge bases to be used within the GIS environment, directing the data files to be used, and specifying other defining elements of the analyses to be conducted.

This section describes what spatial decision support systems are in general, then summarizes the functionalities of the EMDS system and the knowledge bases developed by NCWAP to evaluate suitable habitat conditions for salmonids. Finally, this section provides an understanding of appropriate applications of this collective decision support tool, and how it might be used by coastal managers and restoration practitioners engaged in salmonid recovery planning in other regions, such as San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties.