CICEET Progress Report for the period 3/01/08 Through 8/31/08
Project Title: Building SWAMPs in Coastal Oregon Communities
Principal Investigator(s): Derek Godwin, Desiree Tullos
Project Start Date: 12/01/07 (Date when OSU Sponsored Programs completed process for setting up the grant)
Report compiled by: Derek Godwin
Project Objectives for This Reporting Period
Objectives
1. Engage local decision-makers (planning department staff, planning groups, developers, elected officials, landowners and other stakeholders) by increasing awareness and understanding of the impact development practices have on stormwater and water quality.
2. Empower local planning departments, real estate developers and homebuilders to implement low impact development (LID) strategies ranging from site to landscape scale assessment, planning and implementation of LID practices.
3. Assist local governments in updating land use plans, creating stormwater plans, and developing incentive and regulatory programs that ensure the implementation of innovative and cost-effective low impact development practices.
4. Reduce the implementation costs (time and labor) related to designing new stormwater management practices and reviewing the related development plans.
Tasks to meet objectives
The following is a list of tasks with the original proposed completion dates:
Outreach Education
1. Basic presentations delivered locally as needed (on-going)
2. Train-the-trainer on GIS, Explorer and analytical tools (9/2007)
3. Train local communities on existing analytical and visualization tools (GIS, ISAT, NSPECT, etc.); as requested in pilot communities (3/2008)
4. Assistance on reviewing/updating/developing incentive and regulations for implementing LID practices (on-going)
Oregon Land Use Explorer
1. Phase 1 develop portal web design, contribute statewide data, build mapping tool and land use reporting tool (2/2007)
2. Phase 2 build county-based mapping tool, refine land use on county pages, perform outreach on tools, enhance with additional data (8/2007)
SWAMP development
1. Stormwater design algorithms completed (1/2008)
2. Integrated tool calculation and reporting verified (7/2008)
3. Interface completed offline (9/2008)
4. Interface functioning online (12/2008)
SWAMP and Land Use Explorer training
1. Training workshops (1-4/2009)
2. Application of tool (4-6/2009)
Progress on Tasks
Outreach Education
1. Basic presentations SWAMP will eventually be the primary tool in helping communities design LID practices. Until it is created, we work with our agency partners to deliver a wide variety of programs in Western Oregon communities to increase awareness, knowledge and skills related to conducting LID practices.
A. We delivered a presentation and formed an advisory committee in the Rogue Valley to aid in the planning and delivery of Low Impact Development education workshops. This committee will also help in reviewing the SWAMP tool in October/November. We are in the process of planning the formation of two additional coastal advisory committees and two in the Willamette Valley.
B. Two rain garden workshops were delivered on the Coast (Tillamook and Coos Bay) in the spring. We are working on a curriculum and training materials to complement these trainings. We are planning to deliver 5 more in the coming year.
2. GIS and spatial analysis tools
A. Trainings on the Oregon Explorer on-line tools have been delivered on campus and in a variety of communities to different audiences. The train-the-trainer programs are being planned for fall, 2008 summer, 2009 in conjunction with the completion of the Land Use Explorer and Wildlife Explorer projects (see http://oregonexplorer.info/ to view the latest on-line tools).
B. OSU Extension partnered with NOAA Coastal Services Center in delivering a 4-day ArcGIS and Coastal Applications course on the Coast in July, 2007 (25 participants). We have not received additional requests for these types of training at this time; however, our advisory committees will help us flesh out these needs and may lead to requests for more training.
3. Assistance in land use planning and code/ordinance review
A. The Oregon Coastal Management Program has provided small grants to individual communities for the purpose of code/ordinance review to support LID practices and create/update stormwater management plans.
B. Oregon Sea Grant and the Oregon Environmental Council completed two reports that provide suggestions for education, technical assistance and specific programs related to low impact development. The Oregon Sea Grant report is called Barriers and Opportunities for Low Impact Development: Case Studies from Three Oregon Communities (ORESU-W-06-002). It can be found at http://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/sgpubs/onlinepubs.html. The OEC report is called Stormwater Solutions: Turning Oregon’s Rain Back into a Resource. It can be found at http://www.oeconline.org/rivers.
Oregon Land Use Explorer This project has completed phase 1 and 2 with the exception of the outreach education component. You can view the on-line resource at the Oregon Explorer website http://oregonexplorer.info/. The OSU library and Institute of Natural Resources have been conducting focus group sessions to review the portal and make suggestions for final revisions. They are planning to conduct outreach education in the fall, 2008 summer, 2009.
SWAMP development and trainings We have a faculty member and a grad student working on the project. The faculty member is creating the design tool, and the graduate student has been working on the fact sheets that will accompany the tool. We are approximately half-way complete on a draft SWAMP tool. We expect to have the draft tool complete in early October. We have scheduled three workshops in October and November in which we will demonstrate the model in three coastal communities. We are also presenting the model in a coastal planners' workshop in October. Workshop participants will provide feedback that will guide the final development of the tool (expected to be complete by summer, 2009). Our work in creating advisory committees in our target communities will help us plan our future stormwater education workshops. SWAMP will be one of our tools in which we will provide for our communities. We will also be delivering a series of complementary workshops and technical assistance related to Low Impact Development.
Difficulties
Our project has been moving along at a rapid pace during the summer. Our only difficulty has been finding the most up-to-date remote sensing data for our project sites. We were expecting to have a new source of land use data in June of this year (LandsatTM, 2007, 30meter). Unfortunately, the data has not been characterized and is not in an easy-to-use format at this time. Rather than continuing to wait on this data, we have decided to use the next best available land use data which dates back to the year 2001 (National Land Cover Database, 30m TM).
Outreach education efforts have continued to be planned and implemented. We have been working with members of our target communities in planning programs and services. We have created an advisory committee in one of our larger pilot communities (Grants Pass/Medford area). Our target communities have been requesting workshops and information related to the design and on-the-ground management of stormwater practices rather than GIS assistance programs as we expected. Therefore, we have been focusing our efforts on these types of workshops rather than working with NOAA and the OSU library on teaching remote sensing tools. These workshops will be a nice complement and improve our success in providing outreach on SWAMP.
Project Objectives for Next Reporting Period
Describe Technical and Non-Technical Objectives
We will continue to work towards meeting our overall project objectives outlined above. In particular, we will have completed a draft SWAMP tool and provided initial outreach workshops. We will gain feedback from these presentations and use the information to refine and create the final product.
Work Plan to Meet Objectives
Our work plan has not changed significantly from the tasks outlined above but our expected completion dates have changed. We will focus on creating a draft SWAMP tool and plan the delivery of workshops in our pilot communities to test the tool. We expect to have a draft tool completed by the end of September, 2008. We will be delivering workshops using this tool in October and November, 2008. This will lead to a refinement of the tool and project completion in June, 2009. Our final outreach programs will be in July to October, 2009.
Expenditures
We have hired a faculty member to build the SWAMP tool. We have hired a grad student on a part-time basis to develop the BMP fact sheets that will be part of the tool. We have hired an outreach coordinator to help create advisory committees and plan and deliver the workshops to evaluate the SWAMP tool.
Here is a budget summary as of August 31, 2009. The U0513A is for the outreach coordinator and the U0513B is for the on-campus faculty and grad student.
What Else?
Please provide feedback on this report and let me know if you need more information.