1Department of Forest Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331
2Pacific Northwest Research Station, U.S. Forest Service, Corvallis, OR 97331
3Department of Bioresource Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331
The last decade has seen an increasing emphasis on the need to predict spatially varying hydrologic and geomorphic responses at quite fine resolutions using spatially distributed models. The CLAWS, a physically based spatially distributed hydrologic and geomorphic 4D model, is designed to simulate the hydrologic and geomorphic responses of forest watersheds to landscape and climate changes. This model integrates the major hydrologic and geomorphic processes such as snow accumulation and melting, interception, evapotrasporation, subsurface flow and overlandflow, hillslope stability and sediment transport with vegetation management options. Time and expertise required for data preparation and model parameter estimations, and post-run spatial analysis and data visualization can be prohibitive. A Geographic Information System has been dynamically linked with CLAWS to address the watershed response to varying soil, vegetation and particular topographic attributes. This expedites both the pre-run terrain analysis based on Digital Elevation Model data and other spatial layers of soil and vegetation characteristics, and the post-run spatial data visualization which include elemental flow, soil moisture distribution, factor of safety, debris flow path and snow distribution output at any point during the simulation based on GIS readable files and accompanying AMLs.