Arizona NEMO Wet/Dry Mapping of the Agua Fria River

Arizona NEMO has developed a mapping protocol and GIS data management and processing methodology to record the changing perennial reaches of Arizona Rivers.  Built on a local community volunteer monitoring program that has gathered on the third Saturday of June since 1999 to record where water flows in the San Pedro River, NEMO Wet/Dry has formalized the volunteer monitoring program and expanded the activity across Arizona.  The NEMO research / outreach educational program is directed toward land-use decision-makers, watershed partnerships, environmental and community organizations, and the interested public. NEMO’s goal is to train watershed partnerships to initiate – and sustain – yearly Wet/Dry mapping so as to monitor the health of Arizona rivers. 

 The goal of yearly monitoring is to create a long-term record of changes in river flow - while the record of any single year is interesting it is a record for multiple years that may tell what is really happening to the flow in the river.   In addition, the goal of Wet/Dry is to build community participation, provide outreach education on the importance of long-term monitoring of our natural environment, and foster understanding of and responsibility for the health of Arizona watersheds. 

 This presentation will include the 8-minute NEMO training video, GIS mapping protocol and GPS training documents, example field data sheets, and an overview of the monitoring results on several rivers in Arizona, in including the Agua Fria River.