Congressional Briefing on SPARROW Model

In this briefing USGS demonstrated a new and innovative online decision support system used to identify sources of nutrients to downstream waters, such as the Gulf of Mexico, Long Island Sound and others. The decision support system provides access to six newly-developed regional models that describe how rivers receive and transport nutrients to sensitive waters. This decision support system saves time and resources by giving water managers access to sophisticated water-quality models that relate nutrient sources, such as atmospheric deposition, agriculture, waste water treatment plants, and others, to stream water-quality conditions. Managers can easily map and track predictions of nutrient conditions, sources, and quantities transported to downstream waters, and evaluate alternative nutrient reduction scenarios.