Evaluating The Use of Models for Projecting Future Water Flow in the Southeast

Principal Investigator(s): Jonathan Kennen, Ph.D., USGS, New Jersey Water Science Center and Stacy Nelson, Ph.D., Center for Geospatial Analytics, Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, North Carolina State University
Project Completion: July 2013. This project has now been completed.
Implements Science Plan Theme: 3

Overview

Assessing the impact of flow alteration on aquatic ecosystems has been identified as a critical area of research nationally and in the Southeast U.S. This project aimed to address the Ecohydrology Priority Science Need of the SECSC FY2012 Annual Science Work Plan by developing an inventory and evaluation of current efforts and knowledge gaps in hydrological modeling for flow-ecology science in global change impact studies across the Southeast. To accomplish this goal, we completed a thorough synthesis and evaluation of hydrologic modeling efforts in the Southeast region (including all states of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (SEAFWA) including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia) and Puerto Rico. Because this modeling synthesis was performed comprehensively and using a consistent methodology, it will provide landscape conservation cooperatives (LCCs) and other resource managers with a useful database of who is doing what, where, how, and how well in terms of hydrological modeling for global change impact studies across the Southeast region.