A Framework to Evaluate Biological Benefit and Costs of Alternatives to Reduce Impacts from Multiple Dams

A decision support framework was developed and applied to allow effects of management actions at multiple dams on fish to be evaluated.  The biological analysis integrates survival, distribution and diversity information across fish lifestages.  This information is evaluated using lifecycle models of fish populations and viable salmonid population (VSP) principles, with an emphasis on fish passage effects at high-head dams.  Non-biological information is then integrated to evaluate cost effectiveness and implementation approaches for different alternatives.  The analysis framework is flexible in that it can be used to consider the effectiveness of a range of management alternatives at multiple scales (both biological and geographic).  This talk will focus on the approach taken to identify and filter feasible alternatives, and how models were developed and used as a central part of that process, leading to identification of preferred actions for the Willamette Basin, OR.