Determination of ecologically acceptable flows in rivers with seasonal changes in the density of macrophyte

The Instream Flow Incremental Methodology (IFIM) is a procedure that has been applied to the rivers of many countries to determine the relationship between discharge and a measure of the physical habitat area available to aquatic species. PHABSIM is a software package that is used to perform the calculations required for the IFIM procedure. Published data on instream macrophyte growth in chalk streams are used here to test the seasonal effects of plant growth in a hypothetical channel. The results show how these effects can significantly distort PHABSIM results. The predicted weighted useable area can differ by as much as 34% depending on the season used for the principal calibration of the Water Surface Profile module (WSP) of PHABSIM. An algorithm is proposed for use with PHABSIM which allows the effects of changes in macrophyte biomass to be included.