Biological and Agricultural Engineering

Watershed Restoration and Protection

Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies (WRAPS)

Kansas Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) is a planning and management framework that engages stakeholders within a particular watershed in a process to:

  1. Identify watershed restoration and protection needs and opportunities
  2. Establish management goals for the watershed community
  3. Create a cost-effective action plan to achieve goals
  4. Implement the action plan

WRAPS represents a shift from "top-down" government intervention in watershed issues, to a more citizen-stakeholder approach, in which funds, guidance and technical assistance are provided for stakeholders to reach consensus on issues of relevance in their watershed, and then design and execute a plan to address those issues.

Kansas State Research and Extension and Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering sponsor all phases of the WRAPS process. The watershed modeling team at BAE is involved in watershed assessment phase of the WRAPS process. During the assessment phase the watershed is evaluated on critical source areas, various environmental and water resources information is collected in forms of geospatial datasets, the information is updated using knowledge of watershed residents and stakeholders, water quality model is developed and validated. and multiple scenarios are simulated to identify critical areas of highest pollutant runoff potential. The results provide an information on environmental health of the watershed and are used as guidance for implementation of best management practices.

K-State WRAPS watersheds (assessment reports):

  1. Lower Big Blue River and Lower Little Blue River Watersheds tuttle
  2. Milford Reservoir Watershed milford
  3. Upper Neosho Watershed neosho
  4. Middle Neosho Watershed neosho
  5. Neosho Headwaters Watershed nesoho hw
  6. Upper and Lower Cottonwoods Watershed cottonwood
  7. Toronto Reservoir Watershed toronto
  8. Oologah Lake Watershed oologah
  9. Big Hill Creek/ Big Hill Lake Watershed big hill
  10. Elk City Lake Watershed elk city
  11. Delaware River Watershed delaware
  12. Kirwin Lake Watershedkirwin

More information on WRAPS: