Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (CVFPP)- Identification and Prioritization of Potential Restoration Sites

cbec is currently assisting DWR (through a sub-contract with AECOM) to identify and prioritize potential restoration sites for the CVFPP.

The project involves recently developed GIS techniques and the HEC-Ecosystems Function Model (EFM), developed by HEC in Davis, California, applied in support of the Restoration Opportunities Analysis, or ROA. This restoration project includes multi-objective design parameters.

GIS techniques: cbec provided critical review of a method entitled Floodplain Inundation Potential (FIP), which was applied to the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. Initially, a 1-dimensional hydraulic model (HEC-RAS) is used to calculate water surface profiles for a range of flow events important for ecological habitat criteria. These flows included the 2- and 10-year recurrence interval events. They also included an ecologically significant flow event for floodplain rearing of Chinook salmon, which has been called the Frequently Activated Floodplain by others. GIS algorithms are then used to interpolate the potential depth of corresponding flows on the floodplain, assuming that the floodplain could be reconnected to the main channel. This was applied to the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.

HEC-EFM: this tool is used to dynamically couple statistical analysis for response of various habitat criteria to hydrologic and hydraulics predictions; developed as an add-on tool to the HEC-RAS (1-dimensional) hydrodynamic model, the model was applied to the Feather River in California and tested as a pilot project. cbec provided critical review of this modeling effort. The draft report for this part of the ROA was completed in July 2011.

 

Waterbody / Watershed

Sacramento, San Joaquin, Tuolumne

Disciplines