THE SCIENCE OF INSTREAM FLOWS: A Review of the Texas Instream Flow Program by National Research Council of the National Academies

Author:National Research Council of the National Academies
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Earth Sciences : Water and Hydrology
Publisher: NATIONAL ACADEMY PRESS
Published: 2005-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

5

Evaluation of the Texas Instream Flow Technical Overview Document

The Technical Overview Document (TOD; TPWD, TCEQ, and TWDB, 2003) outlines the methodological aspects of conducting instream flow studies in Texas rivers. The act of drafting this document is acknowledged as formidable because it must simultaneously provide (1) methods that are specific enough to guide technical evaluations, and (2) guidance that is broad enough to be applicable in individual subbasins across the different river systems in Texas. The Texas agencies faced a dilemma in writing the TOD because uniform approaches towards technical methods will be of little value to Texas with its wide range of riverine conditions, but the TOD cannot possibly make methodological prescriptions for every river system in the state. Therefore, the difficult task of preparing the TOD involves finding middle ground between these two options.

This chapter reviews and comments on the technical sections of the TOD and provides recommendations for its improvement. The TOD was evaluated for technical accuracy in the context of the instream flow program. The review of the TOD begins with a brief summary and description of the document’ s contents. Subsequently, a section on the overall findings of the TOD is presented, followed by individual evaluations of the subsections of hydrology and hydraulics; biology; physical processes; water quality; and integration and interpretation in the order they are presented in the original TOD. Implementation aspects are discussed in Chapter 6.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.