NetMap Origins

NetMap is designed to analyze watershed attributes and processes by focusing on the relationships between terrestrial or hillslope properties (erosion, wood recruitment, roads etc.) and stream channels and the routing of that information downstream through a channel network. One example of this approach is the prediction of erosion on hillsides (by various processes) and transferring sediment downstream through a channel network. There is a large body of literature on watershed processes that necessarily underpins such watershed research efforts and an extensive list of supporting studies is included in the 400 pages of hyperlinked technical material (to parameters and tools) found in NetMap’s “Help” tab.

Modeling of watershed processes in NetMap requires a spatially registered database operating within a GIS to allow for site-specific analyses of erosion processes, fire risk conditions, and road networks etc. Although similar approaches have been taken by others to address various questions in the watershed sciences over the last decade (see citations in technical reference materials and in the NetMap journal article), Drs. Daniel Miller and Lee Benda at Earth Systems Institute have been working on a coupled hillslope-channel watershed analysis framework since the mid 1990s. In particular, ESI’s focus over the last decade has been on developing a dynamics or disturbance based approach to watershed processes. A brief history of ESI’s work that underpins the development of NetMap is briefly outlined below in Figure 1 as acknowledgement to those efforts. ESI, a non-profit research and education institute, was founded in 1997.

Figure 1. A flowchart illustrates the approximate 10-year history of ESI’s modeling and analysis efforts that underpin the development of NetMap. The numerous other independent sources of research and publications that are incorporated into these studies and models are not shown; refer to supporting literature in NetMap’s HELP tab.

References:

Benda, L. E., and T. Dunne. 1987. Sediment routing by debris flow. International Association of Hydrological Sciences 165:213-223.

Benda, L. E., and T. W. Cundy. 1990. Predicting deposition of debris flows in mountain channels. Canadian Geotechnical Journal 27:409-417.

Benda, L. 1994. Stochastic Geomorphology in a Humid Mountain Landscape. Dissertation. University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

Benda, L., and T. Dunne. 1997. Stochastic forcing of sediment supply to channel networks from landsliding and debris flow. Water Resources Research 33:2849-2863.

Benda, L. E., and T. Dunne. 1997. Stochastic forcing of sediment routing and storage in channel networks. Water Resources Research 33:2865-2880.

Benda, L. E., D. J. Miller, T. Dunne, G. H. Reeves, and J. K. Agee. 1998. Dynamic Landscape Systems. Pages 261-288 in R. J. Naiman and R. E. Bilby, editors. River Ecology and Management. Springer-Verlag, New York.

Benda, L. E., and J. C. Sias. 1998. Landscape Controls on Wood Abundance in Streams. Earth Systems Institute, Seattle, WA.

Benda, L. E., and D. J. Miller. 2001. Beyond Arm Waving: Thinking Critically at Large Scales. Watershed Management Council Networker 10:1, 4-16.

Benda, L. E., P. Bigelow, and T. M. Worsley. 2002. Recruitment of wood to streams in old-growth and second-growth redwood forests, northern California, U.S.A. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 32:1460-1477.

Benda, L., C. Veldhuisen, and J. Black. 2003. Debris flows as agents of morphological heterogeneity at low-order confluences, Olympic Mountains, Washington. Geological Society of America Bulletin 115:1110-1121.

Benda, L., D. Miller, J. Sias, D. Martin, B. Bilby, C. Veldhuisen, and T. Dunne. 2003. Wood Recruitment Processes and Wood Budgeting. Pages 49 - 73 in S. V. Gregory, K. Boyer, and A. M. Gurnell, editors. The Ecology and Management of Wood in World Rivers. American Fisheries Society.

Benda, L., and J. Sias. 2003. A quantitative framework for evaluating the mass balance of wood in streams. Journal of Forest Ecology and Management 172:1-16.

Benda, L., D. Miller, T. Dunne, L. Poff, G. Reeves, M. Pollock, and G. Pess. 2004. Network dynamics hypothesis: spatial and temporal organization of physical heterogeneity in rivers. BioScience 54:413-427.

Benda, L., K. Andras, and D. Miller. 2004. Tributary effects in river networks: role of basin scale, basin shape, network geometry, and disturbance regimes. Water Resources Research 40:1-15.

Benda, L., D. J. Miller, K. Andras, P. Bigelow, G. Reeves, and D. Michael. 2007. NetMap: A new tool in support of watershed science and resource management. Forest Science 52:206-219.

Bigelow, P., L. Benda, D. J. Miller, and K. M. Burnett. 2007. On debris flows, river networks, and the spatial structure of channel morphology. Forest Science 52:220-238.

Burnett, K., G. H. Reeves, D. Miller, S. Clarke, K. Christiansen, and K. Van-Borland. 2003. A first step toward broad scale identification of freshwater protected areas for pacific salmon and trout in Oregon, USA. in J. P. Beumer, A. Grant, and D. C. Smith, editors. Aquatic Protected Areas: What Works Best and How Do We Know? Proceedings of the World Congress on Aquatic Protected Areas. Austrain Society of Fish Biology, North Beach, WA, Australia, Cairns, Australia.

Martin, D. J., and L. E. Benda. 2001. Patterns of instream wood recruitment and transport at the watershed scale. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 130:940-958.

Miller, D. J. 1998. Fortran programs for analyzing stream networks and related terrestrial processes. Earth Systems Institute. Unpublished, but open source, as Netrace.

Miller, D. J., and L. E. Benda. 2000. Effects of punctuated sediment supply on valley-floor landforms and sediment transport. Geological Society of America Bulletin 112:1814-1824.

Miller, D. J. 2003. Programs for DEM Analysis. in Landscape Dynamics and Forest Management, General Technical Report RMRS-GTR-101CD. USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, CO, USA.

Miller, D. J., C. H. Luce, and L. E. Benda. 2003. Time, space, and episodicity of physical disturbance in streams. Forest Ecology and Management 178:121-140.

Miller, D. J., and K. M. Burnett. 2007. Effects of forest cover, topography, and sampling extent on the measured density of shallow, translational landslides. Water Resources Research 43:1-23.

Miller, D. J., and K. M. Burnett. 2007. A probabilistic model of debris-flow delivery to stream channels, demonstrated for the Oregon Coast Range, USA. Geomorphology 94:184-205.

Reeves, G. H., L. E. Benda, K. M. Burnett, P. A. Bisson, and J. R. Sedell. 1995. A disturbance-based ecosystem approach to maintaining and restoring freshwater habitats of evolutionary significant units of anadromous salmonids in the Pacific Northwest. Pages 334-349 in Symposium on Evolution and the Aquatic System: Defining Unique Units in Population Conservation. American Fisheries Society.

Swanson, F. J., T. K. Kratz, N. Caine, and R. G. Woodmansee. 1988. Landform Effects on Ecosystem Patterns and Processes. BioScience 38:92-98.