Piotr Parasiewicz

MesoHABSIM: A concept for application of instream flow models in river restoration planning

Abstract This paper describes the methodological concept for application of physical habitat models to restoration planning at a whole river scale. The design proposed here builds upon the Instream Flow Incremental Methodology but is focused at the need for managing large-scale habitats and river systems. It modifies the data acquisition technique and analytical resolution of standard approaches, changing the scale of physical parameters and biological response assessment from micro- to meso-scale. In terms of technological process, a highly detailed microhabitat survey of a few, short sampling sites would be replaced by mesohabitat mapping of whole-river sections. As with more traditional stream habitat models, the variation in the spatial distribution and amount of mesohabitats can provide key information on habitat quality changes corresponding to alterations in flow, channel changes, and stream improvement measures. However, the scale of simulations more closely matches restoration and system analyses...

Upscaling: Integrating Habitat Model into River Management

Physical habitat modelling has been developed at the scale best applicable to short river stretches and selected species of fish. The integration of these models into management practices at the river and watershed scale would therefore require corresponding modifications in both the models and results. Such procedures fall into three major categories: biological, spatial and temporal upscaling. Biological upscaling develops methods for applying habitat models to aquatic communities, as opposed to individual indicator species. Spatial upscaling creates a hierarchical framework through which to translate habitat observations from the species to management scale. Temporal upscaling incorporates biological and hydro-morphological dynamics into the static model. In the following paper the upscaling concept will be described in greater detail, illustrating its application with the example of the Quinebaug River in New England.

Habitat Indices for Rivers: Quantifying the Impact of Hydro-Morphological Alterations on the Fish Community

Habitat simulation models are effective tools which can be used to estimate spatial and temporal habitat availability for aquatic organisms, and to design and evaluate habitat restoration actions. Based on the meso-scale resolution, the present work proposes two indices to evaluate the spatial and temporal alteration of instream habitats. Firstly, the Index of Habitat Quantity (IHQ) describes the relative amount of habitat loss due to flow diversion, and, secondly, the Index of Habitat Stress Days (IHSD) measures the increase of continuous duration of events when habitat bottlenecks create stress to the fauna. Two case studies from the mountainous areas of Northern Italy are presented as applicatory examples. The achieved results indicate that (i) the meso-scale can be considered an appropriate scale resolution to link fish habitat requirements to fluvial morphological characteristics, and (ii) the proposed indices are flexible tools since they can capture both spatial and temporal alterations of habitat structure and can be applied to different kind of pressures (e.g., hydropower generation, hydropeaking).

Assessment of Alternative Streamflow Augmentation Schemes for the Restoration of the Quinebaug River Watershed

A decision support system (DSS) simulation model consisting of eight lakes and reservoirs is used to explore alternative streamflow augmentation policies being considered for the Quinebaug River Study. The DSS modeling effort is part of a multi-disciplinary study exploring ways to enhance and restore the river habitat along the mainstem of this 453 km 2 (175 mi 2 ) watershed, which is located in south-central Massachusetts and northeastern Connecticut. As part of the study, fishery habitat specialists are recommending a pulse streamflow augmentation strategy that was devised by constructing Continuous Under Threshold (CUT) curves. CUT curves are developed from the frequency and duration characteristics of habitat time series negative run lengths. The efficacy of this flow augmentation policy is compared with the more typical New England fishery habitat recommendation that prescribed continuous releases be made to sustain target instream flows during low flow periods.

Development of a new tool for fish-based river ecological status assessment in Poland (EFI+IBI_PL)

Background. Fish-based indices for evaluation of river ecosystem quality have been used since the 1980s, when the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) was first introduced. Assessment of the ecological status of rivers, based on fish assemblages is required by the Water Framework Directive. During last 15 years a number of national assessment methods based on fish fauna were developed. The recently designed tool for fish-based assessment of ecological status (EFI+IBI_PL) applied in river monitoring in Poland is presented in this paper. Material and methods. The new European Fish Index EFI+ is a multimetric tool consisting of two specific indices, each with two metrics developed separately for salmonidand cyprinid-river zones. Those metrics were used in the European intercalibration process to validate national methods. However, the original EFI+ method is not adequate to some lowland river types (physical-factor classification), so it was complemented by a typespecific modification of the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI_PL). The method was tested on fish data from 493 sites located in 431 surface water bodies sampled in 2011–2012 according to the CEN standard 14011. Results. The EFI+ index was adapted to the specificity of Polish rivers by eliminating some inconsistences of the ecoregion division and problems related to the lack of the Dniester River in the EFI+ software and presented in this paper as EFI+PL. The index of diadromous fish occurrence (D) was also adapted from an original EFI+ method and used as a supplementary assessment tool. Specific IBI metrics were developed for large lowland rivers (with sandy or gravel bottom substrate), organic rivers (flowing through peat areas), and rivers connecting lakes (with the presence or lack of salmonid fish species). A software tool for indices calculation was also developed. The method combination (EFI+IBI_PL) was than tested on a set of 493 monitoring sites sampled in 2011–2012. Both indices classified the highest percentage of sites into moderate ecological state/potential class, but for IBI_ PL this percentage was much higher than for EFI+. Percentage of sites classified to good ecological status or high ecological potential by IBI_PL index were lower than for EFI+. The analysis indicates the consistence of classification for 77% of sites to high/good and below good ecological status by the EFI+PL/IBI_PL method and pressure index. Conclusion. The results of a two-years monitoring program show that the combination of modified EFI+ and IBI methods can be applied as a tool for river ecological status assessment in Poland, however some further method modifications are needed.

The DVP (Depth Velocity Position) bar—a multiplex instrument for physical habitat measurements in small riverine domains

The measurement of physical habitat components in small rivers can be a complicated and resource-intensive task. The characterisation of the complexity and dynamics of such domains requires manual collection of large amounts of data in the shortest possible time. The physical microhabitat variables that are usually measured for assessment/modelling purposes are channel geometry, water depth and velocity. Simultaneous collection of these variables, combined with automatic data logging can significantly reduce sampling time. In this paper, a depth velocity position (DVP) bar developed to achieve this task is described. The prototype of the instrument was built in 1996 and tested intensively in the summer and winter of that year, yielding encouraging results. This multiplex instrument consists of three probes simultaneously measuring depth plus mean column and near-bottom velocities. In addition, a geodesic prism or global positioning by satellite (GPS) rover can be mounted on the top of the instrument for accurate position recording. Water depth is registered by pressure transducer and near-bottom velocity by a one-dimensional electromagnetic probe. The integrative mean column velocity is measured using a modified ‘dipstick’ (Jens, 1968, Dtsch. Gewasserkdl. Mitt., 12. Jahrgang, 4, 90–95). The torque that results from velocities influencing the dipstick is registered with an electronic tension stripe and translated to the mean column velocity. All of above variables are data logged every second for the period set by the operator. Copyright