Water-Analysis Screening Tool (WAST)

A water-analysis screening tool (WAST) was developed by the U.S. Geological Survey in 2008, in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, to provide an initial screening of areas in the state where potential problems may exist related to the availability of water resources to meet current and future water-use demands. The tool compares water-use information to an initial screening criteria of the 7-day, 10-year low-flow statistic resulting in a screening indicator for influences of net withdrawals (withdrawals minus discharges) on aquatic-resource uses. The WAST can display general basin characteristics, water-use information, and screening-indicator information for over 10,000 watersheds in the state. The tool includes 12 primary functions that allow the user to display watershed information, edit water-use and water-supply information, observe effects downstream from edited water-use information, reset edited values to baseline, load new water-use information, save and retrieve scenarios, and save output as a spreadsheet.

The software is provided in appendix 4 to the WAST User's Guide report:
Stuckey, Marla H., and Kiesler, James L., 2008, User's Guide to the Water-Analysis Screening Tool (WAST): A Tool for Assessing Available Water Resources in Relation to Aquatic-Resource Uses: USGS OFR 2008-1242, https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20081242.

Sources/Usage: Public Domain. View Media Details