Development of An Interactive Watershed Management Plan in Gwinnett County, Georgia

Effective watershed management planning requires gathering information on a watershed’s condition that is measurable, comparable, and consistent across the area of the assessment, and creating actionable improvements that meet and adapt to changing objectives and priorities. Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources (GCDWR) performs planning, design, and construction of watershed improvement projects to manage the effects of changing land use on County streams and meet goals established in Gwinnett's Watershed Protection Plan. GCDWR developed a dynamic, rapid watershed management planning approach that identifies watershed improvements and Best Management Practices (BMPs) to address impairments and protect healthy watershed conditions in the Apalachee River watershed. This rapid watershed characterization and BMP opportunity evaluation process streamlines the approach for determining prioritized areas within the watershed in need of restoration or preservation while selecting, siting, and prioritizing structural and nonstructural BMP opportunities to meet variable objectives. The interactive nature of this approach facilitates the dynamic “reshuffling” of watershed improvement needs and BMP implementation priorities as program preferences change, and lessons are learned from implementation. In addition, this process provides justifiable methods for project identification, selection, and potential gains while reducing supplemental field effort and data collection beyond County-managed geospatial information. This approach is expected to substantially increase the useful life of watershed planning efforts.