Success StoryGlenns Creek Watershed Plan: Story Maps for Watershed Characterization and Stakeholder Engagement



Glenns Creek Watershed Plan: Story Maps for Watershed Characterization and Stakeholder Engagement

Author: Lee Moser

Planning Unit: Agriculture and Natural Resources Programs

Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation

Outcome: Initial Outcome

Glenns Creek Watershed is a watershed in Woodford and Franklin Counties, Kentucky. Versailles is in the upper portion of the watershed and it is the home of several notable horse farms and distilleries, which are signature industries for Kentucky.  The Glenns Creek Watershed has been identified as a watershed that has been impacted by human activities. A watershed plan is being developed for the Glenns Creek Watershed. The watershed plan development process is a collaborative effort between multiple stakeholders from within and around the watershed to characterize and identify potential sources of impairments in the watershed and recommend potential corrective actions to address impairments. The watershed plan development process is a collaboration between the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute (KWRRI), the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service (UKCES), the City of Versailles, the Kentucky Division of Water (KDOW), and multiple industry and agricultural partners from throughout the watershed. 

Traditional watershed plans develop a narrative, report style watershed characterization document that is used to describe various aspects of soils, water, geology, infrastructure, demographics, and many other critical environmental and social characteristics of the watershed. This narrative is typically used to aid in identifying potential water quality impairments and the potential sources of those impairments. Potential corrective actions and management measures are synthesized from the result of this characterization process, in-field environmental data collection, as well as from input from watershed stakeholders. 

The Glenns Creek Watershed characterization portion of the watershed plan is being developed in an innovative way through the use of interactive web maps with corresponding narratives. A series of 18 interactive web maps and narratives have been developed to characterize the watershed through ESRI's Story Map toolkit. These interactive maps are readily accessible through the watershed plan website that has been developed to engage stakeholders and provide increased accessibility to the data and process of developing the watershed plan. This project's resulting watershed characterization Story Map is serving as a pilot for use of this type of watershed characterization product for potential use in the development of future watershed characterization and planning efforts. The project website can be accessed at this url: https://glenns-creek-watershed-plan-uky-edu.hub.arcgis.com/ The watershed characterization Story Map can be viewed here: https://arcg.is/1rT8eT1 






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