BASINS 4.0 - HARNESSING THE POWER OF GIS WITHOUT BEING CONSTRAINED BY IT

EPA’s Better Assessment Science Integrating Point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS) is a multipurpose environmental analysis system designed for use by regional, state, and local agencies in performing watershed and water quality-based studies. This system makes it possible to quickly assess large amounts of point source and nonpoint source data in a format that is easy to use and understand. Installed on a personal computer, BASINS allows the user to assess water quality at selected stream sites or throughout an entire watershed. This invaluable tool integrates environmental data, analytical tools, and modeling programs to support development of costeffective approaches to watershed management and environmental protection, including TMDLs. The latest release of BASINS is version 3.1. Like previous releases, BASINS 3.1 contains a suite of GIS-based tools and operates in a GIS environment, using the GIS interface as the front end of the user interface. During the development of BASINS 3.1 significant functionality was identified as not requiring GIS, and so this functionality was developed independently of the GIS customization environment. Keeping only those tools that truly are dependent upon GIS in the GIS customization environment provided a migration path for future enhancements to the system.