Conflicts of Interest: The Slough that Has it All

1. Conflicts of Interest: The Slough that Has it All Before the mid 1950s, the Columbia Slough was regarded as a container for directing dumping of sewage and industrial wastes, which consequently led the water to be severely polluted. Within the past couple decades, many groups and organizations have worked to restore the slough, attempting to improve water quality, air quality, and increase natural area. As a result, there seems to be a notable sign of some improvement in the quality of water in the slough. Nonetheless, recent land cover change around the slough requires us to pay attention to such change and how it might play into the improvement of water quality of the slough. Thus, in this project, we examine land cover change around the slough between 1995 and 2006. We  then look at the number of restoration groups that were created in 1995 until 2006. By looking at the land cover change over time and the number of restoration groups or organizations established within that timeframe, we may be able to arrive at some findings about how land cover change plays into the efforts to improve water quality of the slough. • Natural area” here is used to refer to the regions of the Columbia Slough that support a variety of flora and fauna. This includes forested, aquatic, and grassy ecosystems, but does not include industrial and residential areas with impermeable surfaces. Large man-made ecosystems such as parks and community gardens are included in the definition of “natural area” due to the difficulty of differentiating between ecosystems that are man-made and those that are not on GIS • Permeable vs. Impermeable: • For the purpose of this analysis, permeable surfaces included natural areas, parks, golf courses, and gardens: • Grassy areas • Waterways, • Forest • Wetlands • Impermeable surfaces included residential and industrial areas: • Parking lots • Roads • Buildings Research Questions 1. How has the ratio of industrial or residential area to natural area (see definition below) changed over the past century in the watershed around the Columbia Slough? 2. How have the change in land usage and cover impacted the restoration efforts? 3. Who has attempted to restore the Slough to “natural area,” and what reasons and incentives have led them to focus on restoration? RESULTS 1995 Legend Maps: Impermeable Permeable Pie Charts: Impermeable Permeable 2006 • Methods: • We used two air photos (both of which were already georeferenced), one from 1995 and one from 2006, and created polygons on GIS to estimate impermeable and permeble land cover. • We then looked at various groups or organizations that have been devoting time and resources to the restoration of the slough. The results show a definite increase in impermeable surfaces, leading us to conclude that industrial and residential area had increased over the 11 years. Though there has been a decrease in permeable surfaces, restoration efforts have increased.