VELMA Watershed Modeling for the Puget Sound Integrated Terrestrial-Marine Modeling project
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In collaboration with University of Washington and NOAA marine ecosystem modelers participating in the new Puget Sound Integrated Modeling Framework ( PSIMF ) project, ORD’s VELMA watershed modeling team is estimating environmental impacts of alternative future land use and climate change scenarios out to year 2100 for Puget Sound’s major river basins. VELMA is simulating how these scenarios impact terrestrial runoff and loadings of nutrients and toxins to the Puget Sound National Estuary. VELMA’s terrestrial outputs serve as inputs for PSIMF’s marine ecosystem models, being used to estimate impacts of nutrients and toxins on Puget Sound water quality and food web biota, including endangered salmonids and orca. The team’s primary goal is to assist communities, tribes, and state and federal decision makers in determining how much, where, and what kinds of terrestrial and marine ecosystem best management practices are required to achieve target pollutant load reductions to Puget Sound, now and in the future.