GRAIP

The Geomorphologic Road Analysis and Inventory Package (GRAIP) software is a 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: (1) Calculates and analyzes the production of road-based sediment and the input of that sediment into the stream network; (2) Calculates the impact of road drainage on terrain stability and the potential for the formation of gullies due to erosion. GRAIP is really a process for collecting the data and performing the analysis to assess forest road impacts. The GRAIP software tools support this process. The first generation of GRAIP tools was developed at Utah State University starting around 2005 based on USFS road inventories concieved in 2002. This repository contains second generation GRAIP tools under development to be more platform independent and compatible with more recent GIS software (ArcGIS 10).