Water Supply Stress Index (WaSSI) Ecosystem Services Model

The Water Supply Stress Index Model (WaSSI) is a web-based tool that can be used to project the effects of land use change, climate change, and water withdrawals on river flows, water supply stress, and ecosystem productivity (i.e., carbon sequestration dynamics) across the conterminous United States, Mexico, Rwanda, and Burundi. As water yield and carbon sequestration are tightly coupled, WaSSI is useful for evaluating trade-offs among management strategies for these ecosystem services.

WaSSI users can select and adjust temperature, precipitation, land cover, and water use factors to simulate an unlimited number of global change scenarios for user-determined timeframes through 2100. Simulation results are available as downloadable maps, graphs, and data files that users can apply to their unique information and project needs. WaSSI can predict how climate, land cover, and human population change may impact water availability and carbon sequestration at the watershed level and across the lower 48 United States, Mexico, Rwanda, and Burundi.