Study Design & Hypothesis:

With these pressing environmental issues threatening the ecosystems of the Lake Tahoe Basin and an ever increasing demand for sound environmental planning information, two permanent research facilities will be constructed by the LTIMP. One site will focus on tributary stream research to assess inputs to the lake system, and the other will focus on the water quality of Lake Tahoe itself and its related biological communities.

The Tributary Stream Research Station is intended for environmentally sound and economically efficient primary data collection. The criteria for its construction, of decreasing importance, include:

- Cannot be constructed over roads, built up areas, ecologically sensitive vegetation (wetlands, wet meadows etc.), or lakes.

- Must be at least 50m from tributary stream (to protect the riparian zone) but within 500m (for ease of stream access).

- Slope must be less than 35 degrees (for costs of construction).

- Have a somewhat south-facing aspect (for electricity via solar power).

- Must be 250 m from but within 2000m of a maintained road (for site access).

The Lakefront Research and Information Centre is intended to provide a research station for limnetic studies and to serve as an information centre concerning the ecology and environment of Lake Tahoe for the general public. The criteria for its construction, of decreasing importance, include:

- Cannot be constructed over roads, built up areas, ecologically sensitive areas (wetlands, wet meadows etc.), or lakes.

- Must be within 500m of lakefront (for ease of littoral zone access).

- Must be within 2500m of major dock or wharf (for ease of lake access and facility reasearch vessel mooring).

- Slope less than 20 degrees (for costs of construction)

- Minimize distance between a major built up area and the centre (for maximum tourist public access), however must be 100m from area.

- Maximize local population in site location Census Tract (persons/km^2) (for maximum local public access).

- Must be constructed on suitable soil type, with efforts to build on most cost efficient soil type (for minimizing environmental impact and the cost of foundation construction).

It is possible that the best sites for locating these two facilities will have an optimal configuration of the primary groups of criteria: suitability for intended research and uses, environmental impact of facility construction and the cost of facility construction. It is possible that this optimal configuration of primary criteria can be determined using multi-criteria evalutaion and other spatial analysis techniques in IDRISI Kilimanjaro.

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