Proceedings 2008/002

Workshop to compare methods to quantify the productive capacity of fish habitat impacted by hydro operations; October 15-16, 2007

K.E. Smokorowski, and J.-D. Dutil

Summary

A one and a half day peer review meeting was held in Calgary, Alberta October 15-16, 2007, to provide a scientific review of methods used to measure productive capacity of habitat impacted by hydroelectric operations and development. Participants included national representatives of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) Science and Habitat Management, industry, academia, and environmental non-government organizations. The purpose of the meeting was to provide a science review of methods obtained from the primary literature, industry and elsewhere for evaluating the productive capacity of fish habitat for projects impacted by hydro. The objectives were as follows:

1. Review list of summarized methods and assess for completeness (i.e., identify missing methods);
2. Group methods according to general approach;
3. Evaluate the applicability of methods to DFO mandate and across systems and development scenarios. Identify systems and referral scenarios not covered;
4. Review, revise, and reach consensus on proposed criteria for evaluating the methods;
5. Select candidate methods for review using agreed-upon criteria;
6. Review selected methods according to criteria to ensure standard application of criteria against any future proposed or amended method;
7. Develop a plan to complete work beyond the workshop.

The list of methods was reviewed for completeness and some additions were suggested. The methods were eventually grouped according to use and applicability for assessment and monitoring, and the only development scenario considered to be missing an appropriate method was how to assess the creation of reservoirs. However, no method handled connectivity of habitats or the impacts on estuaries, and all methods lacked adequate scientific validation of predictions. The criteria for evaluating methods were examined, modified, and consensus was reached, however, it was felt that the criteria should not be used to assess new proposed methods outside of a formal peer review process, particularly for large-scale projects. One method was reviewed under the criteria and was considered relatively robust for use in the referral assessment process. There was general agreement that the ‘holy grail’ of creating a national standard method or suite of methods was not feasible at this time. Because of the large spatial scale of hydropower impacts (whole watersheds), specific methods for measuring no-net-loss of productive capacity need to be peer-reviewed on a site-by-site basis in the future. The proceedings will be published on the Canadian Science Advisory Secretariat website and the summary of methods will be published as a Canadian Technical Report of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (Smokorowski and Derbowka, in prep.).

Complete document (PDF, 184 KB)

Accessibility Notice

This document is available in PDF format. If the document is not accessible to you, please contact the Secretariat to obtain another appropriate format, such as regular print, large print, Braille or audio version.