Environmental Flows:

Water Use Plans and Technical Documents in the British Columbia Context

Annotated Bibliography – Ted Wannop 5/27/2015

Introduction

The Okanagan Water Stewardship Council has formed the Environmental Flows Committee in order to study the legal, ecological, and economic aspects of Environmental Flows in the Okanagan. The committee is composed of members of the Water Stewardship Council; in particular, individuals that have a combination of interest and skills in Environmental Flows.

Environmental Flows, for the purpose of this committee, are defined as the timing, quality, and quantity of water flows that are essential for maintaining healthy ecosystems, while managing the flows for human needs as well. For example, an environmental flow study could establish a flow regime in order to ensure healthy spawning of Sockeye salmon in a given sub-basin.

This document centralizes information of interest to the Environmental Flows committee. Specifically, included are Water Use Plans and Technical documents that are in the Okanagan Basin context, with exception to the BC Hydro Water Use Plan examples.

• Map of Completed Water Use Plans (PDF)
• Water Use Plans vs. Water Sustainability Plans
• Okanagan Basin Context
  • Hydrologic Connectivity of Sub Basins
  • Hydrology Water Use and Conservation Flows for Kokanee Salmon and Rainbow Trout in the Okanagan Lake Basin
• Water Use Plans
  • Mission Creek
  • Trout Creek
  • Trout Creek – Water Use Plan Fisheries Report
  • B.C. Hydro Water Use Plan – Noteworthy Examples
    • Coquitlam-Buntzen WUP
    • Cheakamus WUP
• Technical Environmental Flows – Okanagan
  • Powers Creek – Assessment of Alternatives to Enhance Okanagan Lake Fishery
  • Okanagan Water Allocation Tool Plan
  • Phase 2: Okanagan Water Supply and Demand Project
  • Middle Vernon Creek Decision Support System
    • Hydrologic Submodel Technical Documentation
    • Tutorial
    • User Interface Design Memo
• Appendix
  • Map: Priority Basins in the Okanagan (8.7Mb PDF)
  • Map: Okanagan Basin Surface Water Sub-basins (8Mb PDF)
  • Map: Hydrometric Network in the Okanagan Basin (1.8Mb PDF)
  • Map: Aquifers at Risk in the Okanagan (509Kb PDF)
  • Water for Power, Water for Nature – The Story of BC Hydro’s Water Use Planning Program (PDF)