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Vostochnii Refuge in northeast Sakhalin

Vostochnii Refuge in northeast Sakhalin

Programs

WSC and Partners hold GIS Seminar on SakhalinNews & Program Updates

WSC, the Sakhalin Salmon Initiative (SSI) and Sakhalin State University collaboratively conducted the "GIS & Watershed Analysis" seminar from April 14 - 18, 2008 at a local school in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. A total of twelve participants attended the seminar, representing the SSI Center, the Sakhalin Fisheries and Oceanography Institute (SakhNIRO), the Russian Federal Fisheries Agency Sakhalin branch (Sakhrybvod), Sakhalin Environmental Watch and Sakhalin State University.

The SSI Center, SakhNIRO and Sakhrybvod are in the process of establishing an island-wide monitoring plan for six amadromous and resident salmonid species - Sakhalin Taimen, pink, chum, masu, kundja, and Dolly Varden. The main goal of the project is to determine status and detect trends in these fish populations, their habitat condition, and population dynamics among distinct populations throughout the Island. Three rivers in the Aniva Bay ecoregion (southern Sakhalin) were chosen for the first year of research in 2008 - the Naicha (unaffected by anthropogenic factors) the Kura River (a river where SakhNIRO runs yearly studies) and the Taranai (high level of anthropogenic influence). Over the next five years, three additional field sites in five other island Ecoregions will be identified. Three basins will be assessed in one of the six Ecoregions per year over a six-year cycle. One basin in each Ecoregion will undergo yearly studies (the Kura River in the Aniva region) to provide a control.

Fieldwork will begin on May 1, 2008 on the three rivers and the GIS tools introduced in the seminar will be used for determining monitoring sites in the river basins, analyzing and mapping the data, and to assess the conditions of the basins in order to monitor over the long-term.

GIS seminarGIS seminar group

Sasha Yumakaev of ESRI presented on the basics of GIS with an emphasis on hydrologic tools. The topics covered included GIS data formats and presentation, map projections with a focus on the Russian Far East, integrating GPS data, map digitization, and using Digital Elevation Models for hydrologic analysis. Between lectures and hands-on exercises, participants were fully engaged in learning GIS skills for three full days.

Lee Benda and Dan Miller of ESI presented on the use of NetMap software (based on fluvial geomorphology concepts) to help understand watersheds and river systems. Dan kicked of the day and a half training with an overview of fluvial geomorphology concepts and their influence on fish habitat potential including channel dynamics, erosion, and landslides. Lee followed up with a demonstration of the capabilities of and models included in NetMap, as well as a summary of models that were run on the three focal river basins in Aniva Bay (Kura, Naicha and Taranai). The participants expressed a keen interest in erosion and generated many ideas about new possible models to be included in the next version of the software in order to help better understand the impacts of the pipeline projects on the island, among other potential uses. The participants then completed some tutorial exercises that gave them hands-on experience with using NetMap tools.

Christina Friedle of WSC presented on the Salmon Ecosystem Assessment and Monitoring (SEAM) project and the decision support tools that we are using to run the analysis for the coarse and fine scale assessments. Prior to the seminar, Christina completed a preliminary coarse-scale assessment on the Kura, Naicha, and Taranai basins. The assessment on these basins was introduced, as well as the OR North Coast case study for the fine-scale assessment, both within the context of the overall SEAM project. She concluded by giving a demonstration of the Decision Support software tools and the application of these tools for a monitoring plan.

Highlights:

  1. A local TV Station was at the kickoff of the seminar and reported on the event on the afternoon and evening news.
  2. Grants from ESRI will provide ArcView (GIS) software to the SSI Center, SakhNIRO, and Sakhrybvod for continual use in the Monitoring program.
  3. NetMap software and documentation was translated into Russian and will be provided to all three organizations/agencies.
  4. A field trip to the Taranai River and hatchery provided an opportunity for the seminar speakers to visit Aniva Bay ecosystems firsthand and collect information at a couple data points for NetMap data verification.