Assessing cumulative watershed effects in the central Sierra Nevada: hillslope measurements and catchment-scale modeling

Abstract

Cumulative effects result from the combined impact of multiple activities over space and time. Land and aquatic resource managers are particularly concerned with cumulative watershed effects (CWEs). CWEs can encompass a broad range of concerns, but primary issues are changes in runoff, water quality, channel morphology, and aquatic ecosystems at the watershed scale (Reid 1993). CWEs are a class of cumulative effects defined by multiple sources within a watershed that share a common delivery mechanism, the drainage network (fig. 1).

Parent Publication

• Proceedings of the Sierra Nevada Science Symposium

Citation

MacDonald, Lee H.; Coe, Drew; Litschert, Sandra. 2004. Assessing cumulative watershed effects in the central Sierra Nevada: hillslope measurements and catchment-scale modeling. In: Murphy, Dennis D. and Stine, Peter A., editors. Proceedings of the Sierra Nevada Science Symposium. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-193. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture: 149-157