2023 Southeast Alaska Watershed Workshop: Collaboration for the Future

This multi-part event will featured a series of 4 webinars, and culminated in a 3-day

workshop in Juneau, Alaska.

Download (PDF, 717KB)

Lightning Rounds

Check out this video Heath Whitacre, U.S. Forest Service, shared during his lighting round presentation on East Ohmer Creek Restoration.

This webinar aired on February 15th, 2023 via zoom.

Topics included: Downscaling Climate Data with Rick Lader, UAF: The climate of Southeast Alaska is getting warmer and wetter and regional models project these trends will continue. While these models help to understand large-scale change, higher-resolution “downscaled” models are often necessary for localized management-level decision making. In Southeast Alaska, precipitation type, intensity, and seasonality are all important features that can be better resolved by downscaled climate models. This presentation will explore available downscaled datasets for Southeast Alaska – their strengths and weaknesses, how to access them, and it will provide results that are relevant to water resources in the region.

Streamflow Processes and resiliency with Janet Curran, Hydrologist, USGS Climate Science Center: Streamflow in Alaska responds to a diverse mix of seasonal drivers – including rainfall, spring snowmelt, glacier and high-elevation snowpack contributions to melt, and glacier lake outburst floods – distributed unevenly across geographically complex areas. Understanding the relative influence of streamflow drivers on seasonal flows and floods in a range of flow regimes can inform projections of streamflow sensitivity to the changes in temperature and precipitation anticipated with climate change. Exploration of change occurring at gaged streams and the role of elevation and temperature in recent floods demonstrates factors contributing to or attenuating streamflow.

Helpful resources: USGS Streamflow Data

• USGS Water Data for Alaska  (NWIS; also see Next-Gen pages)
• USGS | National Water Dashboard (map-based)

Streamflow Plots 

• USGS WaterWatch — Streamflow conditions (try Toolkit/Site Duration Hydrograph)
• NWS Gage Analysis (weather.gov) (suite of plots of streamgage data)

Reports and Journal Articles 

• USGS SIR 2016-5024 (flood frequency regression equations)
• Curran and Biles (2021) https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR028425 (seasonal flow regimes)

Website 

• Alaska Streamflow Statistics | U.S. Geological Survey (usgs.gov)

 

This webinar aired on February 16th, 2023. Ian Johnson, Hoonah Indian Association Environmental Coordinator, Sustainable Southeast Partnership Community Catalyst

Sometimes, figuring out how much things cost and the money needed to address concerns across the landscape can be daunting! Learn about a few tricks in GIS using attribute rules and AGOL mapping to visualize costs by opportunity to assist in landscape planning.

Download an example spreadsheet and geodatabase here. 

Powerpoint here:

Download (PPTX, 14.28MB)

Webinar #3: Restoring Ecological Function at Stream Crossings

This webinar aired on February 23, 2023. Presented by Heather Hanson, USFWS Fish Passage Engineer.

Streams are a vital part of ecosystem health and functioning habitat for a wide variety of aquatic and terrestrial species. Roads that cross streams, floodplains and riparian areas disrupt ecosystem functions and exacerbate the impacts of climate change.  In the past, engineers often focused on creating hydraulic conditions at road stream crossings that would pass a target species of fish at target flows.  Heather will briefly discuss how this approach falls short when considering the other ecosystem functions provided by streams, floodplains, and riparian areas.  She will then dive into some examples of how a geomorphic based stream simulation approach can be used to improve multiple ecological functions at road-stream crossings and help to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

Powerpoint here:

Download (PDF, 14.95MB)

Other Resources: