CHRIS ENRIGHT: What Do We Mean by “Natural Functional Delta Inflow” in a Regulated and Modified System?
“The issue here for the day is really what do we mean by natural functional flows,” began Chris Enright, Senior Water Resources Engineer for the Delta Science Program (now retired).
“What’s a natural hydrograph in regulated rivers, and the science of natural functional inflows to the Delta?
Think about it; those two terms in many ways don’t even belong together, and in some sense, that’s the purpose of this workshop is to crack that open and try to make some sense of it.
Prior to the Gold Rush, natural and functional would have been redundant, because what was functional was natural, so we didn’t need to distinguish, but the Central Valley watershed is enormously modified and regulated.” ROBIN GROSSINGER: Delta Inflows of the Past: Lessons for Connecting Landscape Elements – Hydrograph Variability and Functions from the Historical Landscape Robin Grossinger, Senior Scientist at the San Francisco Estuary Institute, began by saying he felt well-set up by the first two presentations.
“But they both presented creative strategies, taking clues from the past in terms of hydrology, in terms of morphology, and creative ways those can be brought into our systems today.
And I think implicitly, I agree with the idea there’s a lot of room for improvement, even within the dramatic constraints that we face.
That’s what I think is exciting.” Coming up tomorrow: Coverage of the flows conference continues with the presentation by Dr. Bruce Herbold, “Hydrographs and Ecological Functions in the Present-day Landscape of the Sacramento River”, and Dr. Sarah Yarnell with the presentation, “Ecological Response to the Unregulated Spring Flow Regime in the Sierra Nevada”.
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