This paper presents the results of two nonstatistical surveys (completed in 1981 and 1986) that solicited information from state and federal agencies concerning instream flow issues and practices in North America. Forty-six states and 12 Canadian provinces responded to the survey. Fifteen of the 46 states reported legislative recognition of instream flows for fisheries protection. In Canada, in...

The Demonstration Flow Assessment (DFA) method for instream flow evaluation uses direct observation of river habitat conditions at several flows and expert judgement to rank the alternative flows. The DFA method has the advantage of allowing long river reaches to be assessed at relatively modest cost. However, past applications have often lacked procedures and documentation to assure that resul...

Environmental Flow Requirement (EFR) is defined as the flow that is necessary to ensure the existence of habitats in water resources systems. EFR is defined in rivers as flow index commonly. Tennant method is the most popular hydrological method in rivers and based on the historic flow data. The most common method of hydraulic rating method is the wetted perimeter method. Habitat simulation tec...

Securing instream flows for aquatic ecosystems is critical for sustainable water management and the promotion of human and environmental health. Using a case study from the semiarid region of southern Alberta (Canada) this paper considers how the determination of instream flow standards requires judgments with respect to: (1) The relationship between instream flow indicators and assessments of ...

Instream flow needs (IFN) assessment studies are performed to provide guidelines for stream water management and to assess the impacts of different water projects such as weirs, dams and stream diversions on the available fish habitat. The physical habitat simulation is one of the IFN assessment methods and also a powerful tool in management of river ecosystem that has not become a common metho...

Decades of agricultural growth has led to the over appropriation of Yakima water and the ecological integrity of the Basin has been compromised. We evaluate the impact of current water allocation on the natural flow regime of the Yakima River using the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration/Range of Variability Analysis and by quantifying indicators of ecosurplus and ecodeficit. We analyze the sus...

We use laboratory experiments to test three different water market institutions designed to incorporate instream flow values into the allocation. The institutions are (1) a baseline with fixed minimum flow constraints, (2) an environmental agent contributing to the cost of providing instream flows, and (3) creating an instream flow right in which an environmental agent can sell the right to red...

1. Anderson K.E., Paul A.J., McCauley E., Jackson L.J., Post J.R., Nisbet R.M, 2006, Instream flow needs in streams and rivers: the importance of understanding ecological dynamics, Frontiers Ecology Environment, 4 (6), 309-318, DOI: 10.1890/1540-9295(2006)4[309:IFNISA]2.0.CO;2. CrossRef Google Scholar

The following Arena papers in this issue of River Research and Applications present the first of two sets of papers that address the current development status of Mesohabitat Simulation system (MesoHABSIM) and Target Fish Community approach. It includes a description of the methodology, results of testing and validation and example of application. I am excited to deliver this publication into t...