Riparian Habitat Restoration

This analysis was a collaborative effort between the Tryon Creek Watershed Council and myself, Will Butler, a student enrolled in Portland Community College's GIS program. Our goal was to aid the TCWC's efforts in selecting riparian habitat sites on which to focus restoration efforts. In our analysis, we were focused on selecting sites based on two main criteria, erodibility potential and canopy cover, with erodibility potential being our chief concern. Additionally, we focused our efforts on areas upstream of the Tryon Creek State Natural Area, that did not fall within other areas of green space such as large public parks, schools, and other natural areas. Land ownership and property type are major factors when deciding where to focus restoration efforts, so individual tax lots were used as analysis zones to further aid in the decision making process. This presentation details and explains the site prioritization analysis preformed within ArcGIS Pro.

After our analysis, we have clearly defined areas where slope is both high, and canopy cover is potentially low. Throughout this analysis, there were many decision points that influenced the final results. If different results are desired, the values, weights, and parameters of the various tools run can be altered and reran. Given the scope of this project and the constraints of both time and expertise, I believe we were able to provide sound recommendations for areas where restoration efforts should be focused. In the future, this analysis could be bolstered by more knowledge of soil science and soil types. Soil characteristics should factor into an erodibility analysis whenever possible, but we unfortunately are not soil scientists and were unable to derive any meaningful analysis from the soil data we possessed. Slope is a good indication of possible erodibility, but it is only a start. If anyone should attempt this analysis again in the future, they should try to take this into account. Additionally focusing on areas where the creeks converge, or confluences, could be another factor to prioritize as this could increase cost-effectiveness.