A NEW FLASHINESS INDEX: CHARACTERISTICS AND APPLICATIONS TO MIDWESTERN RIVERS AND STREAMS

Native flora and fauna in streams and associated riparian zones are adapted to various features of the natural flow regime, and human alteration through dam construction or land-use change can impair the biological communities. Flashiness in the context of streamflow is equated with the rate of chan...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Water Resources Association 2004-04, Vol.40 (2), p.503-522
Main Authors: Baker, David B., Richards, R. Peter, Loftus, Timothy T., Kramer, Jack W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
agricultural hydrology
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics
Exact sciences and technology
flashiness index
Hydrology
Hydrology. Hydrogeology
Indicators of Hydrological Alteration
Pollution, environment geology
stormwater management
stream flashiness
surface water hydrology
watershed management
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Summary:Native flora and fauna in streams and associated riparian zones are adapted to various features of the natural flow regime, and human alteration through dam construction or land-use change can impair the biological communities. Flashiness in the context of streamflow is equated with the rate of change in flow. A brief review is provided of indices used frequently to characterize flow regime and flashiness, and development is described of a new index called the Richards Baker Flashiness Index, which measures oscillations in flow relative to total flow. Results are presented from an evaluation of the new index using flow, land-use, and land-cover data obtained for 515 stream gauge sites from six midwestern US states. Results using the Richards Baker Flashiness Index are compared with those generated using the Indicators of Hydrological Alteration and the annual coefficients of variation for daily discharge. Results show that the Richards Baker Flashiness Index, which is correlated positively with increasing frequency and magnitude of storm events and negatively with baseflow and watershed area, exhibits lower interannual variability than other flow-regime indicators.
ISSN:1093-474X
1752-1688
DOI:10.1111/j.1752-1688.2004.tb01046.x