Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2008OK107B

An Assessment of Environmental Flows for Oklahoma

Institute: Oklahoma
Year Established: 2008 Start Date: 2008-03-01 End Date: 2009-06-19
Total Federal Funds: $50,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $100,000

Principal Investigators: Don Turton, William Fisher

Project Summary: The Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan is currently being updated to make water demand projections for the next 50 years. Historically, the Plan has made provisions for consumptive water uses; however, there is a need to include non-consumptive uses in the current plan, including environmental flows that sustain aquatic animals and plants. River ecologists and conservationists generally agree that a regulated river needs to mimic the five components of the natural flow regime, including the magnitude, timing, frequency, duration, and rate of change and predictability of flow events, plus the sequence of these conditions. These more complex methods go beyond developing simple hydrological rules of thumb to more comprehensive environmental flow assessment. We propose to use the Hydroecology Integrity Assessment Process (HIP) approach developed by the U S Geological Survey to assess environmental flows in Oklahomas perennial streams. The HIP is a modeling tool that identifies 10 non-redundant hydrologic indices that are ecologically relevant, specific to stream classes, and characterize the five components of the natural flow regime, including the magnitude, timing, frequency, duration, and rate of change and predictability of flow events, plus the sequence of these conditions. Information derived from the HIP analysis will be used to make environmental flow recommendations for incorporation into the Oklahoma Comprehensive Water Plan