New Delta Habitat Map!

DARI provides a standard regional approach to wetland classification and mapping to support wetland restoration planning, tracking, and reporting. It will facilitate implementation of the California Wetland and Riparian Area Monitoring Plan (WRAMP) in the Delta. A common base map for the Delta will provide several benefits, including to:

• establish a baseline of existing aquatic resources in the Delta;
• inform prioritization of management actions and evaluate the effectiveness of projects;
• increase the ability to assess and track the amount and quality of wetlands in the Delta to support compliance monitoring and assessment of wetlands projects;
• increase the capacity for assessing regional and statewide net change in the abundance, diversity, and condition of wetlands as affected by land use;
• facilitate wetland monitoring in the Delta region to assess the status and trends in its wetland ecosystems; and
• encourage ongoing stewardship and updating of DARI with protocols and online tools.

The project also included a pilot study to apply the Riparian Zone Estimation Tool Vegetation Module (RipZET) to the Delta. This pilot is in recognition of the importance of riparian areas to water quality and habitat condition. Their loss has already affected water quality and habitat conditions and presented a number of challenges for resource managers related to water management and land use planning. RipZET is a GIS-based decision support tool that estimates existing functional riparian width, and its relation to associated riparian functions, based on physical characteristics along the edges of channels and other wetlands.

All DARI products are available for download. The DARI project was funded by a USEPA Wetland Program Development grant with oversight by the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy and Bay-Habitat Mapping Workgroup.