Index of Floodplain Integrity in Colorado

This resource represents the results of a project that: 1) developed a methodology to assess floodplain integrity using geospatial datasets available for large spatial scales; and 2) used the methodology to evaluate spatial patterns of floodplain integrity in the state of Colorado. To accomplish these objectives, the critical floodplain functions of attenuating floods, storing groundwater, regulating sediment, providing habitat, and regulating organics and solutes were evaluated. For each floodplain function, measurable stressors that inhibit the specific function were identified. The density of each stressor variable in the floodplain was quantified using datasets that are publicly available at large spatial scales. The index of integrity for a given floodplain function was then determined using the density of all stressors that inhibit the function. Next, the overall index of floodplain integrity for a given floodplain unit was calculated using a geometric mean of the indices of integrity for each of the five floodplain functions. The index of floodplain integrity methodology was applied in the state of Colorado to analyze the integrity of each of the five floodplain functions and the aggregated overall integrity. This resource contains a table with the resulting numeric index of floodplain integrity for each of the floodplain functions for each floodplain unit segregated by HUC-12 boundaries. It also contains a shapefile of the floodplain-containing HUC-12 units in Colorado with the index of floodplain integrity values as attributes.