A Guide to Modeling Low Flows and Intermittent Streams in the Pacific Northwest

As droughts become more frequent, there is a growing need to understand how drought impacts streamflow permanence. Intermittent streams, or streams that go dry at some point during the year, are found in all ecoregions and represent over half of the global stream network length. As stream intermittence increases, there will be implications for both aquatic and terrestrial wildlife communities, land management, and water rights holders. A core challenge to understanding how drought will impact streams is the fact that hydrologic models are often better at representing periods of high flow rather than low flow. Gaining a better understanding of the processes that lead to stream drying, and how these processes are represented in models, [...]