Water Programs Databases and Tools

EPA Water Resource Tools

• Watershed Assessment, Tracking and Environmental Results System (WATERS)
  WATERS is a tool that unites water quality information previously available only on individual state agency homepages and at several Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) websites. State and federal water quality managers, as well as interested citizens, can use WATERS to identify the status of individual waterbodies of interest to them. It can also be used to generate summary reports on all waters of a state.
  
  
• Web-based Reach Indexing Tool (WebRIT-WATERS)
  The Web-based Reach Indexing Tool (WebRIT-WATERS) is an interactive mapping procedure that allows users to view surface waters within the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) and related information about these waters and their watersheds as context for georeferencing their own water quality information to the NHD, including projects funded under Clean Water Act Section 319h (Nonpoint Source Implementation Grants).
  
  
• Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS)
  BASINS is a multi-purpose environmental analysis system that integrates a geographical information system (GIS), national watershed data, and state-of-the-art environmental assessment and modeling tools into one convenient package.
  
  
• Watershed Plan Builder Tool
  The Watershed Plan Builder Tool is an interactive, web-based tool used to promote the development of comprehensive watershed protection and restoration plans. It also identifies funding information, technical resources, federal and state contacts for water programs, and gives descriptions of various agency program rules and guidelines that relate to managing water quality.

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Other Water Resource Tools

• The Center for Watershed Protection, Technical Tools
  
  
• WATER, Soil, and Hydro-Environmental Decision Support System (WATERSHEDSS)
  WATERSHEDSS is a watershed-level, web-based decision support system. Its two primary objectives are to:
  1. transfer water quality and land treatment information to watershed managers in order to assist them in making appropriate land management and land treatment decisions to achieve water quality goals
  2. assess and evaluate sources, impacts, and potential management options for control of nonpoint source pollution in a watershed based on user-supplied information and decisions
  
  
  
• Nonpoint Source Pollution and Erosion Comparison Tool (N-SPECT)
  N-SPECT helps coastal managers and local officials predict potential water quality impacts to rivers and streams from nonpoint source pollution and erosion. Users first enter information about their area (land cover, elevation, precipitation, and soil characteristics) to create the base data layer. They can then add different land cover change scenarios (such as a development) to get information about potential changes in surface water runoff, nonpoint pollution, and erosion. N-SPECT was developed as a decision-support tool for the WaiŽanae area of OŽahu, Hawaii, but other coastal communities can use the tool if they have the information needed for the base data layer.
  
  
• Impervious Surface Analysis Tool (ISAT)
  The Impervious Surface Analysis Tool (ISAT) is used to calculate the percentage of impervious surface area of user-selected geographic areas (e.g., watersheds, municipalities, subdivisions).