COURSE "INTRODUCTION TO INSTREAM HABITAT MODELING USING MESOHABISM"
Venice, San Servolo Island 15 June 2008

This short course is organized by Rushing River Institute, a noprofit organization of Massachusetts (USA) and is planned for Sunday, prior to the ECRR conference.

Introduction to Instream Habitat Modeling using MesoHABSIM

Due to excellent participation and feedback, from theri seminar-course offered at the 137th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society, San Francisco, California, United States, they are offering a similar course for river restoration community in Europe.
River restoration planning demands tools capable of quantifying the consequences of flow and channel modification at various temporal and spatial scales. The Rushing Rivers Institute focuses on developing an efficient habitat assessment approach to analyze functional relationships between river biota and their physical environment at the watershed scale.
A recently developed habitat modeling approach, called MesoHABSIM, and its associated software, SimStream, is experiencing growing popularity in river restoration and management planning throughout the Northeastern United States.
This one-day crash course will introduce you to the MesoHABSIM method addressing following topics:

  1. Identifying biological targets and indicators
    1. Reference fauna
    2. Bioperiods
    3. Indicators
  2. Biological filters for habitat suitability
    1. Literature based criteria
    2. Multivariate models from empirical data
  3. Instream Habitat evaluation
    1. Delineation of habitat in space
    2. Assessment of habitat quantity
    3. Upscaling
  4. Adjusting Biophysical template
  5. Time Series Analysis
  6. Interpretation and management
    1. Restoration recommendations
    2. Flow management criteria
    3. Management tools
Using projects on rivers throughout New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts as case studies, RRI will teach you the basics of data collection techniques, data processing, and river restoration planning. More in depth MesoHABSIM courses are also offered throughout the year.

For more information please visit the website at www.rushingrivers.org/Courses/Courses.htm.