Citation:

Mazor, R., K. Fritz, B. Topping, Tracie-Lynn Nadeau, AND J. Kelso. Data Supplement to Development and Evaluation of the Beta Streamflow Duration Assessment Method for the Western Mountains (EPA 840-B021008). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, 2022.

Impact/Purpose:

Flow duration classification is used to implement several federal, state and local stream management programs. Because the flow duration of streams via existing maps, remote sensing, and gauging is constrained, field-based tools are often needed by practitioners. This document details the data collection, data analysis, and evaluation steps used to develop the beta Streamflow Duration Assessment Method for the Western Mountains of the United States.

Description:

The data supplement is a companion document to the user manual for the beta Streamflow Duration Assessment Method for the Western Mountains (beta SDAM WM) of the United States (EPA 840-B-21008). The beta SDAM WM is a field-based method for rapidly classifying stream reaches as perennial, intermittent, at-least intermittent, or ephemeral. This data supplement details the data collection, data analysis, and evaluation steps that were used to develop the beta SDAM WM. Four biological, two geomorphological, and two climatic indicators form the basis of the WM beta SDAM. Additionally, the presence of single indicators (fish other than non-native Gambusia and/or at least 10% algal cover) indicates the reach is confidently not ephemeral, but without additional information, does not determine if the reach is either perennial or intermittent. The accuracy of the beta SDAM WM for classifying ephemeral, intermittent and perennial reaches was 74% and 53% in the training and testing data sets, respectively. The accuracy of the method for differentiating ephemeral from at least intermittent (perennial and intermittent) reaches increased to 93% and 88% in the training and testing data set, respectively.

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