Integrated Systems Modeling to Improve Watershed Habitat Management and Decision Making

Regulated rivers provide opportunities to improve habitat quality by managing the times, locations, and magnitudes of reservoir releases and diversions across the watershed. To identify these opportunities, managers select priority species and determine when, where, and how to allocate water between competing human and environmental users in the basin. Systems models have been used to recommend allocation of water between species. However, many models consider species’ water needs as constraints on instream flow that is managed to maximize human beneficial uses. Many models also incorporate uncertainty in the system and report an overwhelmingly large number of management alternatives. This dissertation presents three new novel models to recommend the allocation of water and money to improve habitat quality. The new models also facilitate communicating model results to managers and to the public. First, a new measurable and observable habitat metric quantifies habitat area and quality for priority aquatic, floodplain, and wetland habitat species. The metric is embedded in a systems model as an ecological objective to maximize. The systems model helps managers to identify times and locations at which to apply scarce water to most improve habitat area and quality for multiple competing species. Second, a cluster analysis approach is introduced to reduce large dimensional uncertainty problems in habitat models and focus management efforts on the important parameters to measure and monitor more carefully. The approach includes manager preferences in the search for clusters. It identifies a few, easy-to-interpret management options from a large multivariate space of possible alternatives. Third, an open-access web tool helps water resources modelers display model outputs on an interactive web map. The tool allows modelers to construct node-link networks on a web map and facilitates sharing and visualizing spatial and temporal model outputs. The dissertation applies all three studies to the Lower Bear River, Utah, to guide ongoing habitat conservation efforts, recommend water allocation strategies, and provide important insights on ways to improve overall habitat quality and area

Channel Movement, Error Analysis, and Impacts for Neighboring Landowners: A Lower Bear River, UT Case Study

The Bear River Fellows program is a unique learning experience for undergraduate students giving hands-on experience in collecting, synthesizing, and analyzing environmental and ecological data. The Bear River is an important resource that provides water to farms, reservoirs, wetlands, wildlife, and hydropower generation. Because of the river’s value, it is important to understand how the Bear River channel moves and how that affects the surrounding landscape, which is a topic of interest for local land owners but especially conservationists in protecting wetlands and river ecology. We collected hydrological, topologic, and vegetative data from three persisting research sites along an 8 mile stretch of the Bear River, two along the river main stem between Idaho-Utah state line and Cutler reservoir with the first at the Bear River Bottoms near Morton and the second is just below the confluence of the Bear and the Cub Rivers, a major tributary, and a site on the Cub River In the study of these sites, we developed water level, river bank surveys, riparian zones delineation, and river bed contours using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) and transom surveying equipment. We used the data to develop multi-year cross sectional views of each research site providing a graphical view of the river cross section. Data that was collected by previous fellows in 2012 and 2013 was added to the cross section picture to observe how the river has changing over the past several years. The results of this multi-year view shows how the river has shifted and erosion on riparian zone around the river. The erosion is clearly visible on steep banks, at the Morton study site six feet of erosion took place laterally on steep bank. This shift of the river and its flow is useful to understand the river’s ecology, the impact that small changed to the river have on wildlife, and assist local land owners and conservationists in maintaining the Bear River and its wetlands

Measuring the Eco-Hydrological Performance of the Lower Bear River Basin through Experiential Learning – The Bear River Fellows Program

Measuring and evaluating the performance of river systems necessarily requires understanding the variety of environmental and ecological variables driving the decision-making process in managing river basins. Such variables are best understood with field measurements, data analysis and computational modeling. The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Utah State University (USU), through a National Science Foundation project, has partnered with the Outdoor Recreation, and Parks and Recreation programs at USU to offer the Bear River Fellows Program - a new, unique river-based experiential learning opportunity for 5 freshmen Fellows to receive first-hand experience in collecting, synthesizing and analyzing environmental and ecological metrics. The Fellows collected field measurements and examined environmental and ecological variables from three different sites along the Lower Bear River between the Idaho-Utah state line and Cutler dam. Data collected includes flow measurements, channel cross section topology, riparian vegetation, beaver activity, and human-caused inflows and diversions. This poster presents the findings of the data analysis for one site at the confluence of the Bear and Cub Rivers. Fellows provide their insights related to their hydrological and ecological observations

Seasonal Flow Rates along the Lower Bear River, UT

The goal of this research is to identify how flow on the Bear River in Cache Valley has changed over the last three years and how flow changes seasonally. Identifying flows is important to manage water resources along the Bear River. We collected and processed water pressure data every 30 minutes using HOBO transducers at two sites in Cache Valley (Morton, just downstream of highway 142, and Confluence which is located at the confluence of the Bear and Cub Rivers) south of the Idaho‐Utah border in 2015. We also measured flow and water stage up to three times per year at each site using an Acoustic Doppler Current profiler and transom survey equipment. We pooled these observations with measurements and data collected by prior undergraduate Bear River Fellow researchers in 2012 and 2013 and used the observations to generate linear regression models to relate water stage to flow at each site. By applying the linear regression model to our pressure measurements, we calculated flow at each time a pressure reading was recorded for its respective location on the lower Bear River. We used the flow rates to determine that very little water is lost or gained between the USGS gage and the Morton site but that during summer months nearly 300cfs is lost between the Morton and Confluence sites. This information can help Bear River pumpers better manage their use

Rethinking river restoration: An integrated systems modeling approach to improve watershed habitat

Rivers and their riparian areas perform key ecological functions (e.g. food, shade, etc.) that contribute to sustaining ecosystem health. These functions are highly sensitive to human impacts. Most restoration projects target a specific area within the watershed and try to return that area to natural or near-natural conditions. In practice, projects use habitat quality indicators (e.g., Habitat Suitability Index) to monitor restoration of one or a few habitat attributes (e.g. instream flow, bank stability, flood regime). Rethinking river restoration requires a more integrated approach to represent all watershed habitat components. Systems models provide decision makers with tools to quantify and understand interconnections between different habitat components. They help predict and account for potential changes in the hydrologic, ecological, and management variables in water systems. Thus, planning and monitoring river restoration can be more effective with system models. However, applying system models in restoration practice require new and robust habitat quality indicators that are capable of capturing dynamic hydrologic and ecological changes in the watershed system with minimal data-collection effort. We have developed a Watershed Habitat Performance (WHP) indicator (measured in unit area) that quantifies habitat performance in four areas; aquatic life, riparian area, floodplain and diked wetlands. The WHP sums four sub-indicators. An aquatic life sub-indicator measures the habitat suitability for aquatic species as a function of water depth, and channel surface area. A riparian area sub-indicator measures the protection of riparian land as a function of the length of protected river shoreline. A floodplain area sub-indicator measures the suitability of the floodplain to support native vegetation as a function of flood frequency, flow, floodplain area and vegetation nativity. Finally, diked wetland sub-indicator measures the suitability of wetland units to support priority bird species as a function of water depth, invasive vegetation control and wetlands unit area. The model maximizes the sum the four sub-indicators with different weights that vary spatially and temporally. The systems model attempts to maximize watershed habitat performance by adjusting the decision variables that contribute to the values of the four sub-indicators. These variables include water depth, flow, invasive vegetation control and river bank protection). These variables are incorporated into the systems model that recommends allocating scarce water to maximize the WHP. The optimization is subject to certain restrictions and management limitations (e.g. water rights, storage and infrastructure capacity, budget). We validated this conceptual model using data on the Lower Bear River, Utah that were collected through the Bear River Fellows Program. Our findings will be discussed with the River managers to help recommend alternatives to better allocate water to improve environmental watershed services and secure water for wetlands and riparian areas

Stage-Flow Relationship and Seasonal Fluctuations in Flow of the Lower Bear River

The Bear River Fellows Program within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Utah State University was funded through the National Science Foundation. We extended the data analysis of the previous year’s research at three different sites within the Lower Bear River Basin between the Idaho-Utah state line and Cutler Reservoir on two separate occasions, August 13-16, 2013 and November 16, 2013. Our work included collecting river stage, flow, and water pressure measurements using standard surveying equipment, an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), and pressure transducers. Part of the objective of each trip was to fill out the relationship between stage and flow at each site, and to see how the pressure, temperature, and flow changed over time. Using the data collected from each location and past trips, we were able to develop a stage-flow relationship for each site. With the additional sites located south of the Stateline where a USGS monitoring site is located, we were able to more accurately locate where water was lost within the Lower Bear River. The pressure transducer data was used to calculate a time-series of water stage. The calculated stage was then converted into a time-series of flow at each location using the linear stage-flow relationship previously calculated. We concluded that there was a positive, linear relationship between stage and flow by interpolating the data from our sites on the Bear River. The analysis of the data is primarily concerned with the change of the river discharge over time and seasonal patterns associated with it. This stage-flow relationship and time-series of flows derived from pressure transducer readings provide new insight into how mass is balanced within the Lower Bear River basin. In essence, this provides a better understanding of effects of human inputs/outputs and changing weather patterns on the flow, and to where the water is actually flowing

Mapping Inflows, Diversions, and Vegetation along the Lower Bear River Basin

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Utah State University (USU), through a National Science Foundation project, has partnered with the Outdoor Recreation, and Parks and Recreation programs at USU to offer the Bear River Fellows Program - a unique river-based experiential learning opportunity for 6 freshmen Fellows to receive first-hand experience in collecting, synthesizing and analyzing environmental and ecological data. Part of these objectives included observing plant composition over time as well as measuring inflows to and diversions from the river. We collected field measurements such as flow measurements and channel cross section topology and examined environmental and ecological variables from three different sites along the Lower Bear River between the Idaho-Utah state line and Cutler dam on August 13th – 16th, 2013 and additional data was collected on multiple river trips. While traveling from site to site, we were also able to observe riparian vegetation, beaver activity, and human-caused inflows and diversions. In order to organize, analyze, and graphically communicate data, maps were created through a mapping program entitled ArcGIS by plotting locations of diverse species of riparian vegetation, locations of beaver activity, and observed versus actual human-caused inflows and diversions and color coordinating each species to highlight trends in the topographical depiction. Through our collection of vegetation samples and locations, we are able to conclude the trends and specific locations of plant species, such as phragmities, that grow in specific areas along the Bear River, along with a comparison of the inflows and diversions from last year, this year, and other documented sources

Mapping the Lower Bear River Cross Section

The lower Bear River plays a large agricultural and socioeconomic role within the Cache Valley. Studying changes in the River’s flow, depth, surrounding vegetation, and river cross section is absolutely imperative in that these changes can have large impacts on the valley’s agricultural and economic well-being. The purpose of this cross section data study is to map the geometry of different portions of the Lower Bear River to be able to compare the data from year to year to understand how the changes in the river cross section correlate with seasonal variation of river flow. We obtained data through setting up three monitoring sites along the River, and measuring cross section data using an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) as well as surveying equipment to measure river bank, water surface, and surrounding land elevation. After obtaining the data, we then digitally converted and organized it into formats that allowed for it to be graphically represented on a basic x y plane where the x axis represents distance away from the benchmark point, and where y represents elevation with reference to the benchmark point. From these graphs, changes in the river bed, banks, and river water depth are able to be inferred visually. Similarly quantitative correlations between year to year measurements are able to be observed in the organized numerical data. The findings from this work illustrate changes in the river cross section that could possess pertinence to changes in river flow and depth. Changes in the river cross section come about primarily because of natural erosion, and also erosion attributed to human influence. Mapping the river cross section at different points allows us to see what amount of change in the river cross section is normal and what is not. By this we hope to be able to establish a cross section variance norm, which will then give us the opportunity to see differences in the cross section of the river that have a potential to have an either positive or negative lasting effect

Flow on the Bear River over the Past Four Years

Managing the Bear River’s flow has allowed water users to get the most out of the available water. The goal of this research is to gain an understanding of how flow on the Bear River has changed over time and how flow changes throughout the course of the year on the Bear River. We collected and processed water pressure data at three Cache Valley sites south of the Idaho-Utah border in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Through the use of HOBO transducers (collecting data every thirty minutes), we have been able to measure water pressure data of the Bear River year round and calculate flow based on those levels and baseline measurements taken by an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler. By using data and flow calculations from four years of monitoring we have generated a model to relate water pressure to flow for each site individually. Through this process, we have created a time series of flow rates at those sites along the Bear River. We used the flow rates to determine the relative locations of where water is being added to, or taken from, the Bear River, and how those amounts vary through time. Understanding how much water is available from the Bear River is important for users to know so they can better manage their use. Information generated by this research can help to paint a clearer picture of when and where water is available on the Bear River