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Ecological Tradeoff Analysis on the Sacramento River, California
The Nature Conservancy
Current water planning approaches on the upper Sacramento River in California balance a number of socio-economic demands on the river system: agricultural production; flood protection; municipal and industrial water supply; and power generation. Ecological considerations are few, and include maintaining in-stream flow and temperature requirements to support species listed under the US Endangered Species Act.
Working with The Nature Conservancy and Stillwater Sciences, ESSA Technologies is currently engaged in developing a quantitative model that relates changes in a limited set of management actions (such as changes in flow) to responses in physical habitats for six focal species on the upper Sacramento River: Chinook salmon; steelhead; green sturgeon; bank swallow; western pond turtle; and Fremont cottonwood. Once completed, this model will integrate existing ecological information, workshop input from technical experts, field investigations, and computer modeling to quantify selected linkages among the flow regime, channel characteristics, and specific valued ecosystem components. The intention is that this “tool” will then be used to better inform managers and decision makers about the ecological implications and trade-offs of changes in flow management and other actions on this regulated system.
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