Habitat Assessment and Restoration Planning (HARP) Model
January 28, 2021
The Habitat Assessment and Restoration Planning (HARP) model is a process-based analysis for quantifying historical, current, and future habitat conditions, and modeling effects of climate change and restoration actions on salmon populations.
We developed the Habitat Assessment and Restoration Planning (HARP) Model to help prioritize salmon habitat restoration actions in in the Pacific Northwest. The model uses a process-based framework in which changes in drivers such as land use, habitat restoration actions, or climate change alter habitat conditions in streams and rivers, which then alter input parameters to the salmon life cycle models (illustration below). Habitat scenarios can be created for any combination of restoration actions, land use change, and climate change. The salmon life cycle models then run the habitat scenarios to identify which types of habitat restoration are most likely to aid salmon recovery and increase resilience of salmon populations to climate change.
- To date we have run the HARP model in the Chehalis River basin, the Snohomish River basin, and the Stillaguamish River basin. Links to HARP model publications, and data sets and model code for the Stillaguamish-Snohomish and Chehalis basin applications are below. A prior version of the model and contract reports describing the model development are available on the Chehalis Watershed Assessment and Life-cycle Modeling web page.
Publications
HARP model description and restoration scenario results
Jorgensen, J., C. Nicol, C. Fogel, and T. Beechie. 2021. Identifying the potential of anadromous salmonid habitat restoration with life cycle models. PLoS ONE 16(9):e0256792.
Beechie, T., C. Nicol, C. Fogel, B. Timpane-Padgham. 2021. A process-based assessment of landscape change and salmon habitat losses in the Chehalis River basin, USA. PLoS ONE 16(11):e0258251.
Modeling effects of climate change and restoration scenarios
Beechie, T., C. Fogel, C. Nicol, J. Jorgensen, B. Timpane-Padgham, P. Kiffney. 2023. How does habitat restoration influence resilience of salmon populations to climate change? Ecosphere 14(2).
Nicol, C., C. Fogel, J. Jorgensen, and T. Beechie. 2022. Spatially overlapping salmon species have varied response to early life history mortality from increased peak flows. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 79: 342-351 DOI: 10.1139/cjfas-2021-0038
Fogel, C., C. Nicol, J. Jorgensen, T. Beechie, B. Timpane-Padgham, P. Kiffney, G. Seixas, and J. Winkowski. 2022. How riparian and floodplain restoration modify the effects of increasing temperature on adult salmon spawner abundance in the Chehalis River, WA. PLOS ONE 17(6): e0268813.
Shade-temperature model
Seixas, G.B, T.J. Beechie, C. Fogel, and P.M. Kiffney. 2018. Historical and future stream temperature change predicted by a lidar-based assessment of riparian conditions and channel width. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 54(4):974-991. doi.org/10.1111/1752-1688.12655
Contract report: Stillaguamish River basin (Phase 2) – climate change, habitat restoration, and hatchery effects
Beechie, T. J., A. Goodman, M. Lowe, O. Stefankiv, and B. Timpane-Padgham. 2023. Evaluating Effects of Climate Change, Restoration Scenarios, and Hatchery Effects on Chinook Salmon in the Stillaguamish River Basin with the HARP Model. U.S. Department of Commerce, Contract Report NMFS-NWFSC-CR-2023-xx.
Contract report: Stillaguamish and Snohomish River basins – habitat restoration options
Beechie, T. J., A. Goodman, M. Lowe, O. Stefankiv, and B. Timpane-Padgham. 2023. Habitat Assessment and Restoration Planning (HARP) Model for the Snohomish and Stillaguamish River Basins. U.S. Department of Commerce, Contract Report NMFS-NWFSC-CR-2023-02.
Stillaguamish and Snohomish River Basin Applications
In the Stillaguamish and Snohomish basins, we analyzed restoration potential for nine drivers of habitat change: migration barriers, fine sediment, wood abundance, riparian shade, channel straightening, bank armor, beaver ponds, floodplain habitats, and estuary habitats, and modeled effects of those changes on spawner abundance of coho salmon, Chinook salmon, and steelhead. Links to supporting data and model code are below.
Data
Title | Description | Download (.zip) |
Last updated | Data dictionary |
---|---|---|---|---|
Attributed stream line | Modified NHD+ stream layer with geomorphic and habitat quantity and quality attributes by 200-m segment | Flowline_STL | September 28, 2022 | Data dictionary |
Flowline_SNO | ||||
Backwater habitats | Polygon layer of large river (>20 m bankfull width) backwater habitats digitized from aerial imagery | Backwater_STL | September 28, 2022 | Data dictionary |
Backwater_SNO | ||||
Floodplain habitats | Historical and current floodplain marshes, ponds, and lakes | Floodplain_STL | September 28, 2022 | Data dictionary |
Floodplain_SNO | ||||
Large river edge habitat | Line layer of large river (>20 m bankfull width) bank and bar edge habitats, including armored bank designations from aerial imagery | EdgeHabs_STL | September 28, 2022 | Data dictionary |
EdgeHabs_SNO | ||||
Large river riffle habitats | Large river (>20 m bankfull width) spawning riffle polygons digitized from aerial imagery and redd survey information | Riffles_STL | September 28, 2022 | Data dictionary |
Riffles_SNO | ||||
NOAA subbasins | Subbasins boundaries that define subpopulation habitat ranges | Subbasins_STL | September 28, 2022 | Data dictionary |
Subbasins_SNO |
Model Code
Model code is available at:
https://zenodo.org/record/7570349
Chehalis River Basin Application
In the Chehalis River basin, we analyzed the effects of changing eight drivers of habitat change: migration barriers, fine sediment, wood abundance, riparian shade, channel straightening, bank armor, beaver ponds, and floodplain habitats, and modeled effects of those changes on spawner abundance of coho salmon, Chinook salmon, and steelhead. Links to supporting data and model code are below.
Data
Title | Description | Download (.zip) |
Last updated | Data dictionary |
---|---|---|---|---|
Attributed stream line |
Modified NHD+ stream layer with geomorphic and habitat quantity and quality attributes by 200-m segment |
January 15, 2021 |
||
Backwater habitats |
Polygon layer of large river (>20 m bankfull width) backwater habitats digitized from aerial imagery |
January 15, 2021 |
||
Floodplain habitats |
Historical and current floodplain marshes, ponds and lakes |
January 15, 2021 |
||
GLO floodplain feature notes |
Detailed data and descriptions of floodplain habitats noted along GLO survey lines, corresponding to floodplain habitat polygons |
January 15, 2021 |
||
Large river edge habitat |
Line layer of large river (>20 m bankfull width) bank and bar edge habitats, including armored bank designations from aerial imagery |
January 15, 2021 |
||
Large river riffle habitats |
Large river (>20 m bankfull width) riffle polygons digitized from aerial imagery |
January 15, 2021 |
||
NOAA subbasins |
Subbasins boundaries that define subpopulation habitat ranges |
January 15, 2021 |
Model Code
Model code is available at https://bitbucket.org/noaalcm/asrp/src/v14/.
Model code for Fogel et al. (2022) is available at: https://zenodo.org/record/6590079#.YpJYJBPMJpQ.