Salmon Habitat Restoration Planning (SHaRP) Model

To assist aquatic habitat restoration planning for salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest, we developed the Salmon Habitat Restoration Planning (SHaRP) model. The SHaRP model consists of three separate modules: the spatial analysis, the habitat analysis, and the life-cycle models.

• The spatial analysis includes the GIS processes and analyses that translate raw data layers into estimates of historical and current habitat areas and quality for each reach in the basin.
• The habitat analysis then takes those data and additional information to estimate life- stage capacities and productivities for each species in historical, current, and future habitat scenarios.
• The salmon life cycle models use the habitat scenarios to evaluate which types of habitat change most influence spawner abundance, and to identify which types of habitat restoration are most likely to aid salmon recovery.

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 journal articles are below, along with the supporting habitat data layers. 

Publications

In progress