Laguna Watershed Knowledgebase

We have developed modeling applications of the Carnegie-Ames-Stanford Approach (CASA) ecosystem model coupled with a surface hydrologic routing scheme previously called the Hydrological Routing Algorithm (HYDRA) to model river discharge rates across Russian River drainage area. To assess the CASA-HYDRA model's capability to estimate actual water flows in both extreme and non-extreme precipitation years, we have organized all the long-term river gauge records throughout the Russian River drainage for comparisons to monthly model predictions. Preliminary results demonstrate that the model can accurately predict historical discharge rates at the monthly time step at gauging station locations on Santa Rosa Creek, as well at gauging stations on the Russia River near Guerneville, Healdsburg, Cloverdale, Hopland, and Ukiah. Future simulations of river flows under climate change scenarios will be presented, with with special attention to alterations of annual and seasonal hydrology on the Santa Rosa Creek drainage.