Carbon and Greenhouse Gas Accounting (COMET)

The NRCS designated tool for assessing the air quality greenhouse gas emission resource concern is COMET, containing functionality found in the COMET-Farm and COMET-Planner web applications developed by the Colorado State University Natural Resources Ecology Laboratory (NREL).

NREL has developed a COMET API available to other applications wanting access to the COMET computational engine. NRCS CDSI applications, such as the Conservation Desktop currently in development expect to call the COMET API for resource assessment of greenhouse gas emissions as field conservationists develop conservation plans and provide technical assistance to farmers and ranchers. The web services described in this document enable the flow of data between CDSI applications and the COMET-API. COMET-Planner also contains functionality to aid in the selection of conservation practices during the process of creating conservation system alternatives, and two services address this need.

Climate Services

Comprehensive Flow Analysis (CFA) Services

The Comprehensive Flow Analysis (CFA) services were designed to increase access to and unite the various topics of flow analysis into a single scalable web tool. Traditionally the various components of flow analysis including flooding, drought, base-flow, pollutant loading, and duration curves have been examined independently by various analysis methods or software packages.

These services include a statistical summary of time series data, a USGS Bulletin 17B approach to flood frequency analysis, a fitted regression to watershed drought analysis based on Salas (2005), baseflow separation by the BFLOW analysis (Arnold and Allen 1995), flow and load duration curve analyses (Cleland 2007), and the the USGS load estimation analysis LOADEST (Runkel et al., 2004).

Conservation Resources Management Services

Management Services managing databases used for CR services

Farm Irrigation Rating Index

River Hydraulics and Sediment Transport Analysis Services

The River Hydraulics and Sediment Transport Analysis (Hydraulics) services enable a user to analyze the hydraulic properties of a river cross section and it's related sediment transport rates.

Hydraulics calculates channel cross-section hydraulic properties including cross-sectional area, hydraulic radius, wetted, and top width. It also includes options for calculating the normal depth (Manning's equation) and critical depth of the cross-section. Sediment transport equations included in the services include Yang's Sand Total Load (1996), Brownlie's Total Load (1981), Martin and Church's revisitation of Bagnold's Bed Load (2000), Wilcock and Kenworthy's Two-phase Bed Load (2002), and a power-function rating curve.

Integrated Climate and Land-Use Scenarios (ICLUS) Services

The Integrated Climate and Land-Use Scenarios (ICLUS) services were designed to extract ICLUS (https://www.epa.gov/iclus) data (version 1 or 2) for an area of interest. This information is useful for modeling future changes in watershed characteristics.

Integrated Urban Water Model (IUWM) Service

The Integrated urban Water Model (IUWM) was designed to forecast urban water demand and project potential savings from conservation and use of alternative water resources over varying climatic conditions and land uses.

National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) Extraction Service

The National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) annual load service was designed to extract annual load estimate rasters for an area of interest.

Deposition data is currently available for total nitrogen.

Nutrient Management Planning Tool (NMPT)

Rangeland Hydrology and Erosion Model (RHEM) Services

RHEM is a process‐based erosion model that provides quantitative estimates for runoff and erosion rates specific to rangelands. RHEM represents a modified and improved version of the WEPP model code specific for rangeland application and based on fundamentals of infiltration, hydrology, plant science, hydraulics, and erosion mechanics. RHEM estimates runoff, erosion, and sediment delivery rates and volumes for complex hillslope shapes and slope lengths for single homogeneous rangeland units [e.g., one Ecological Site (ES)]. RHEM is an ongoing coordinated effort between ARS and NRCS.

The RHEM model structure includes equations for water infiltration, runoff, sediment load, splash erosion, thin-sheet erosion, and concentrated flow erosion. Model parameters include soil, slope, vegetation type, canopy and ground cover, and precipitation characteristics.

Soil Quality and Analysis Services

Stream Visual Assessment Protocol (SVAP) Services

The SVAP services and data stores support applications developed for the Conservation Delivery Streamling Initiative (CDSI) of the USDA NaturalResources Conservation Service (NRCS). The services return data for populating the SVAP worksheet, including watershed description, stream reach description, assessment elements, and assessment results.

Time Series Data Download Services

The Data Download services were designed to provide access to numerous time series databases for information about climate, stream flow, water quality, snow pack, and more.

These services include access to the USGS National Water Information System (NWIS), EPA's STORET/WQX, Colorado Division of Water Resource's (CDWR) stream flow data, Snow Telemetry (SNOTEL) climate monitoring stations, National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP), and the Colorado Data Sharing Network (CDSN).

Water Supply Forecasting (EWSF)

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Watershed Rapid Assessment Program (WRAP)

Watershed protection programs aim to maintain or restore the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of waterbodies. The development and implementation of these watershed plans require analysis of watershed conditions which are both spatially and temporally variable. Therefore, assessment of current and historic data and information is vital for continuously updating management plans in response to changing land use, climate, and watershed conditions. The Watershed Rapid Assessment Program (WRAP) is used to extract, organize, and analyze data and information at various watershed scales, including HUC 12, HUC 10, and HUC8 levels, for readily available geospatial characteristics as well as water quantity and quality.