| Function | Integrates experiential, aesthetic, and cultural attributes help create improved life quality characteristics and encourage stewardship of our waterways | Distribution of precipitation on a watershed, a portion of which makes its way to the stream via surface runoff and subsurface inflow after interception, depression storage, infiltration, and associated losses and storage in the land. | Movement of water in streams through channels and floodplains expressed in depths, velocities, and forces of flows and in interactions between sediment and water. | Response of the stream to water and sediment inputs from the watershed, which define the location, shape, and form of the active channel and floodplain within the valley bottom. | Supports stream dynamics and stability, provides flow resistance and filtering, improves infiltration, and creates habitat. |
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| Stream Importance | If poorly managed, human activities can adversely impact our natural ecosystems, resulting in less resilient stream systems, poor aesthetics, and unsafe conditions. | The flow regime (peak, volume, duration, frequency, and timing of runoff over the spectrum of rainfall events) directly affects the physical configuration of the stream, riparian vegetation, water availability, water quality, and flood hazards to people and property. | The energy associated with flowing water shapes streams, influences riparian vegetation, and transports sediment. | A stream that reflects a self-sustaining form given its water and sediment inputs facilitates natural stream functions. | The integrity and function of a stream is reflected in its vegetation; healthy vegetation is integral to dynamically resilient stream corridors. |
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| Societal Importance | Thoughtful integration of waterways and stormwater infrastructure into the built environment complements inhabited areas and improves quality of life. | Human activities directly influence watershed hydrology; increased urban runoff and other modifications to the flow regime may impact streams negatively, while efforts to minimize changes from natural watershed hydrology reduce impacts. | Favorable hydraulic conditions associated with appropriately dimensioned channels connected to well vegetated floodplain benches help create high functioning, lower maintenance streams. | The geomorphic stability and natural amenities of a stream system can be upset by adverse impacts of human influences thereby increasing the risk of property loss and the need for maintenance. | Well managed stream corridors create healthy stands of riparian and upland vegetation to improve stability, reduce maintenance costs, and provide aesthetic value and natural and human habitat. |
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| Management Goal | To provide waterways and stormwater infrastructure that enhances inhabited areas and improves quality of life while performing essential stream functions and flood protection. | To minimize changes in flow regime from natural (undeveloped) watershed conditions. | To convey the full spectrum of flows by balancing energy and channel resistance in a manner that is compatible with stream morphology and protects people, property, and the environment. | To establish a dynamically self-sustaining stream corridor that conveys water and sediment in a predictable manner that is compatible with adjacent land uses. | To provide elastic structural support against erosive forces and improve infiltration and filtering while not impeding flood conveyance. |
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| Assessment Goal | Characterizing human impacts on a stream and the stream on human interests while envisioning opportunities for mitigation and enhancements. | Characterizing the existing and future flow regime in streams to assess the degree of change from natural undeveloped conditions and the resulting influence on streams, people, and property. | Understanding how flow depths, velocities, and forces affect stream stability and flood risks to people, property, and the environment. | Understanding the shape and stability of a corridor, its vulnerability to future changes, and its likely trajectory given historical and existing contexts and potential watershed changes. | Evaluating the type, diversity, and health of riparian and upland vegetation along stream corridors as it reflects overall stream integrity and trajectory. |
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