With increasing attention focused on restoration and conservation of floodplain habitat for rearing juvenile salmon and other ecological functions, there is a need for systematic, transparent, and consistent accounting of the spatial extent, temporal variability, and quality of habitat on the landscape. The Chinook salmon Habitat Quantification Tool (HQT) and the hydrospatial analysis approach it implements draw from restoration research and practice to establish a science-based approach for quantifying floodplain habitat for rearing juvenile Chinook salmon. The HQT links spatially and temporally variable floodplain inundation – or hydrospatial – patterns to criteria that define high-quality habitat. The HQT includes both modeling and monitoring components designed for use in pre-project design and planning and post-project performance assessment. 

It is part of the multi-species assessment of the Central Valley Habitat Exchange (CVHE, www.cvhe.org). The suitability criteria applied in the tool were established by Stillwater Sciences and the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), and the Chinook salmon HQT habitat evaluation and User Guide development was led by American Rivers and the San Francisco Estuary Institute. The approach uses commonly-applied concepts for evaluating suitable habitat based on modeling, with methods adapted from the hydrospatial analysis approach developed by Alison Whipple (2018).

Co-Authors

• Ted Grantham
• Gloria Desanker
• Lisa Hunt
• Amy Merrill
• Bethany Hackenjos