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Introduction

The Geomorphologic Road Analysis and Inventory Package (GRAIP) is a process and set of tools for analyzing the impact of roads on forested watersheds. GRAIP uses information from USFS Global Positioning System (GPS) road surveys to analyze the impacts that the construction and use of forest roads can have on geomorphic processes and erosion patterns in forested basins. It is designed to help forest managers to effectively manage road and road drainage system and hence minimize the negative impacts of forest roads. GRAIP performs the following analyses to derive information on the environmental impact of roads on forested watersheds:

  • Calculates and analyzes the production of road-based sediment and the input of that sediment into the stream network.
  • Calculates the impact of road drainage on terrain stability and the potential for the formation of gullies due to erosion.
  • Identifies fish passage passability at road-stream crossings and analyzes the resulting contiguity and fragmentation of the stream network fish habitat.

Several tools were developed as part of GRAIP and are part of the download, includidng the GRAIP Preprocessor and the GRAIP ArcGIS Toolbar. In addition, GRAIP also requires the use of several other software packages that are not included in the GRAIP download. This includes ArcGIS 9.1/9.2, TauDEM, Hawth's Tools and SINMAP2.0.

The Tarboton Group and the USDA Forest Service (USFS) developed the GRAIP (Geomorphologic Road Analysis and Inventory Package) process. Charles Luce and Thomas Black of the Forest Service developed much of the theory and the road inventory based approach which forms the foundation of GRAIP. Most of the work on the GRAIP tools was done by Ajay Prasad as his MS project under the supervision of David Tarboton with support from the USFS. The Forest Service's GRAIP page can be found here: http://www.fs.fed.us/GRAIP/index.shtml .

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Distribution and Copyright Notice

Copyright (C) 2007-2014 David Tarboton, Utah State University

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2, 1991 as published by the Free Software Foundation.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

A copy of the full GNU General Public License is included in file gpl.htm. This is also available at:
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
or from:
The Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

If you wish to use or incorporate this program (or parts of it) into other software that does not meet the GNU General Public License conditions contact the author to request permission.

David G. Tarboton
Utah State University
4110 Old Main Hill
Logan, UT 84322-4110
USA
http://hydrology.usu.edu/dtarb/
email: david.tarboton<at>usu.edu

Downloads and Release Notes

Please make note of these items:

  • TauDEM and SINMAP need to be installed before installing GRAIP. TauDEM and SINMAP should not be uninstalled until after GRAIP is uninstalled or the GRAIP uninstaller won't work.
  • TauDEM, SINMAP and GRAIP all require that there be no spaces in the file paths of the data files and that their file names be no longer than the 8.3 format.
  • The LSPlot selection does not work if you have more than a single join on the DrainPoints shapefile.

Downloads:

Overview

The construction and use of forest roads can have a significant negative impact on geomorphic processes and erosion patterns in forested basins. To analyze this impact, the Tarboton Group and the USDA Forest Service (USFS) developed the GRAIP (Geomorphologic Road Analysis and Inventory Package) process. Charles Luce and Thomas Black of the Forest Service developed much of the theory and the road inventory based approach which forms the foundation of GRAIP. Most of the work on the GRAIP tools was done by Ajay Prasad as his MS project with significant revisions and updates by Kim Schreuders, both under the supervision of David Tarboton. GRAIP is designed to help forest managers effectively manage road and road drainage systems and hence minimize the negative impacts of forest roads.

The GRAIP process begins by creating a detailed road inventory using GPS (Global Positioning System) based surveys. Then, a GRAIP analysis uses a number of GIS tools including the GRAIP tools along with a DEM (Digital Elevation Model) to derive environmental impact information from this inventory.

The GRAIP analysis begins by using the GRAIP Preprocessor, a standalone application, to review the road inventory data for inconsistencies, document the inconsistencies, adjust and filter the data, and then builds the GRAIP database and the consolidated drain point and road shapefiles. This process ensures a minimum data quality and allows the data to be represented in a structured format that is more suitable for analysis.

The remainder of the analysis is performed using a number of tools including the GRAIP Toolbar, an ArcGIS 9.1/9.2 toolbar, that performs the heart of the analysis. In addition, a GRAIP analysis uses ArcGIS 9.1/9.2, TauDEM, Hawth's Tools and SINMAP2.0.

The GRAIP Toolbar performs a number of analysis functions. The first group of functions calculates the sediment production for each road segment from slope, length, road surface condition and flow path vegetation. Road segment sediment production is then accumulated at each drain point. Digital elevation model (DEM) derived overland flow directions are then used to accumulate the sediment input to each stream segment. The second group of functions analyzes the impact of road drainage on terrain stability by calculating the specific discharge due to road drainage and using this, together with slope, as inputs to an infinite plane slope stability model. An erosion sensitivity index calculated using slope and contributing road length at each drain point is also calculated to predict gullying. The final function group analyzes the fragmentation of stream network fish habitat due to potential blockage of fish passage at stream crossings.

ReferenceS

Black, T. A., and C. H. Luce. 2002. A road inventory strategy for watershed analysis. USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station, Boise, ID.

Luce, C. H., and T. A. Black. 2001b. Spatial and temporal patterns in erosion from forest roads. The Influence of Land Use on the Hydrologic-Geomorphic Responses of Watersheds. Water science and application 2: 165-178.

Prasad, A., (2007), "A Tool to Analyze Environmental Impacts of Roads on Forest Watersheds," MS Thesis, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Utah State University. [PDF, 6M]