Assessing watershed-scale, long-term hydrologic impacts of land-use change using a GIS-NPS model

Land use change, dominated by an increase in urban/impervious areas, has a significant impact on water resources. This includes impacts on nonpoint source pollution, which is the leading cause of degraded water quality in the United States. A long-term hydrologic impact assessment model is developed using the curve number method. The model is linked to a geographic information system for convenient generation and management of model input and output data, and advanced visualization of model results.