Some Thoughts on a Basin-Wide Habitat Quality Index (HQI) for Wadeable Streams

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Some Thoughts on a Basin-Wide Habitat Quality
Index (HQI) for Wadeable Streams Rivers

• Claire Buchanan
• ICPRB

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Reference Habitats

• . are the Basis for Reference Communities
• EPA - biological condition gradients (BCGs)
• States, SRBC, counties - individual habitat
  criteria for identifying reference conditions
• Astin (2006, 2007) - common habitat criteria
  for the Potomac basin

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Habitat Components In Common

• Water Chemistry
• pH
• Conductivity
• 7 Physical Parameters (scores)
• Anthropogenic alteration
• Bank stability
• Channel alteration
• Habitat heterogeneity
• Instream condition
• Riparian zone
• Substrate quality

REF pH .and. Conductivity .and. All Physical
Parameters
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Habitat vs BIBI Scores
Piedmont r2 0.38, plt0.001 Valleys r2
0.28, plt0.001 Highlands r2 0.11, plt0.001
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Potomac Sustainable Flows Project
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POTOMAC RIVER SUSTAINABLE FLOW AND WATER
RESOURCES ANALYSIS

• aka Middle Potomac River Watershed Assessment
• Team ICPRB, The Nature Conservancy, US Army
  Corps of Engineers
• Objectives
• identify key ecological needs
• quantify current and future human activities
  (especially
• withdrawals, dam operations and land use
  development),
• consider effects of climate change on the
  basins hydrology
• Method Ecological Limits of Hydrologic
  Alteration (ELOHA)
• Purpose
• balance, mitigated, prevent water use
  conflicts and
• degradation of native species natural
  communities

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Some Tools

• CBP Watershed Model 5 flows, land uses
• Enhanced groundwater model component
• Groundwater Impoundments Databases
• Ches Bay Basin WQ Benthic Databases
• CART analysis ? land and water use thresholds
• Workshops large rivers, tributaries
• Potomac Focus for Now

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Flow Regime

• Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration
• Mean flow
• 1 day and 3 day minimum
• 3 day maximum
• High pulse count, high pulse duration
• Low pulse count
• Number of reversals
• Rise rate, fall rate
• Extreme low frequency
• others

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Watershed Water Land Uses (Risk Factors)

• Surface withdrawals
• Groundwater withdrawals
• Total withdrawals
• Impoundments
• Geographic features (e.g. karst)
• Land Uses
• agriculture
• urban
• imperviousness
• forest

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