ABSTRACT
Instream habitat modeling has become increasingly common as a means to assess and protect the habitat of aquatic biota in streams and rivers in the face of increased water resources development and management. This chapter discusses a range of approaches to instream habitat modeling that vary from common applications of instream flow incremental methodology (IFIM) (common in the sense that they closely parallel guidelines in the user’s manual) to studies that use IFIM techniques in less conventional manners. It describes and illustrates the general procedures for performing instream flow studies by referring to elements of actual instream flow studies. The chapter aims to provide an overview of the IFIM along with a description of some of the key components of the methodology. Elements of four instream flow studies are presented as examples of how the ideas in the IFIM can be employed to formalize, address, and resolve different instream flow problems.
