Objectives:

• To devise a methodology to objectively evaluate categories of the Interior Watershed Assessment Procedure with quantitative field data.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the Interior Watershed Assessment Procedure by comparing IWAP scores with the methods derived in #1.
• Provide recommendations to the Ministry of Forests for the revision of the Interior Watershed Assessment Procedure.

Secondary Objectives:

• Development of modeling and statistical techniques in which historical streamflow data is used in a treatment and control watershed to determine if the peak flows have been impacted.
• Development of a technique that provides a preliminary sediment budget for a watershed.
• Establishment of a set of minimum data requirements to test the IWAP procedure.

Experimental Design:

• Three different watersheds are involved.  One with coarse textured parent materials (Blueberry Creek), one with medium textures (Little Cayuse Creek), and one with fine textures (Gold Creek).
• Impacts to peak flows will be assessed using statistical models and trials with watershed models.
• Water quality data, will be collected from 1997 to 2000.
• Sediment budgets will be developed for each drainage.
• A landslide survey classification will test mass wasting.
• A level 3 channel assessment procedure will be used to assess riparian buffers impacts.

History:

• 1997 - Study started.
• 1998
  • Sediment and water quality sampling
  • Surveys of sediment sources in several sub-basins and of channel
• 1999
  • Water quality sampling at all locations
  • Development of sediment budget
• 2000 - Final year of field work
• 2001 - Findings summarized in Penticton Workshop Proceedings.

Status: Dormant

Reports and Publications:

Bird, S.A. 1998. Streamside logging and channel stability: testing the Interior Watershed Assessment Procedure. Unpubl. Rep. B.C. Min. For. Nelson Forest Region.

Whitaker, A., Y. Alila, P. Calvert and D. Toews. 1998. Evaluation of existing hydrological models for use in assessing the impacts of forest management on peak flows. In: Alila, Y. (ed.), Mountains to Sea: Human Interaction with the Hydrologic Cycle. Proceedings Canadian Water Resources Association, 51st Annual Conference , June 10-12, 1998, Victoria, B.C., p. 67-71.

Toews, D., 1999.  A research project to evaluate some of the concepts used in watershed assessment in the interior of British Columbia. Presented at the 7th Meeting of the CGU Hydrology Section and the 25th Annual meeting of the Canadian Geophysical Union. May 9-13, 1999, Banff, Alberta.

Whitaker, A., Y. Alila, and D.A.A. Toews, 2001. Modelling of peak flow change using the DHSVM model. In Toews, D.A.A. and S. Chatwin (Eds) 2001. Watershed Assessment in the Southern Interior of British Columbia: Workshop Ptoceedings March  9 - 10, 2000. Penticton B.C. Canada. B.C. Min. For. Working paper.57. On line Abstract

Henderson G.S. and D.A.A. Toews. 2001. Using sediment budgets to test the Interior Watershed Assessment Procedure. In Toews, D.A.A. and S. Chatwin (Eds) 2001. Watershed Assessment in the Southern Interior of British Columbia: Workshop Ptoceedings March  9 - 10, 2000. Penticton B.C. Canada. B.C. Min. For. Working Paper 57. On line Abstract