Krissy Hopkins is a Research Physical Scientist at the South Atlantic Water Science Center in Raleigh, NC.
Krissy Hopkins studies the impacts of land use change on rivers and streams, focused on understanding how the intensity and type of urban development impact watershed processes. This includes examining the impacts of different types of stormwater management strategies, both conventional and infiltration-based (i.e., green infrastructure), on hydrologic, geochemical, geomorphic, and ecological functions within freshwater ecosystems. Her work also focuses on translating ecosystem functions into ecosystem services and values by applying ecosystem services approaches to floodplain systems and green stormwater infrastructure.
Professional Experience
2017 - Present, Research Physical Scientist, South Atlantic Water Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Raleigh, NC.
2016 - 2017, Research Physical Scientist, Eastern Geographic Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.
2014 - 2016, Postdoctoral Fellow, National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center, University of Maryland, Annapolis, MD.
Education and Certifications
Ph.D. Geology and Environmental Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
Dissertation: From small watersheds to regions: Variation in hydrologic response to urbanization
B.S. Biology/Environmental Science (2nd Major Geography), Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Science and Products
Floodplains provide millions of dollars in benefits every year to people in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds
Unique 20-year study assesses ecosystem response to different types of stormwater management
Raleigh Bank Erosion Project
New dataset available on stream and floodplain geometry to inform restoration decisions
New Insights on using Green Stormwater Infrastructure to Reduce Suburban Runoff
SPARROW Modeling for North Carolina Watersheds
Understanding the Effects of Stormwater Management Practices on Water Quality and Flow
Quantifying Floodplain Ecological Processes and Ecosystem Services in the Delaware River Watershed
Depth grids for floodplain flood attenuation baseline and counterfactual scenarios in the Schuylkill River watershed, Pennsylvania
Watershed characteristics and streamwater constituent load data, models, and estimates for 15 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia, 2000-2021
Lidar-derived rasters of point density, elevation, and geomorphological features for 2013, 2015, and 2022 for the Greater Raleigh Area, North Carolina
Datasets for Rapid Assessment of Streambank Erosion Potential for Selected Streams throughout the Greater Raleigh Area, North Carolina, 2022
Geomorphic metrics across four catchments in Clarksburg, Maryland, 2002-19
Stream cross-section, benthic macroinvertebrate and fish taxa counts and abundance, and water chemistry data for the Clarksburg study area in Montgomery County, Maryland, 1992 - 2020
Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration in North Carolina Catchments
Data release for Piloting Urban Ecosystem Accounting for the United States
Predictions of floodplain and streambank geomorphic change and flux of sediment and nutrients, and streambed characteristics, for stream reaches in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds
Physico-chemical characteristics and sediment and nutrient fluxes of floodplains, streambanks, and streambeds in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds
Geomorphometry for Streams and Floodplains in the Chesapeake and Delaware Watersheds
Streamflow and precipitation event statistics for treatment, urban control, and forested control watersheds in Clarksburg, MD USA (2004-2018)
Mapping stream and floodplain geomorphometry with the Floodplain and Channel Evaluation Tool
Societal benefits of floodplains in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds: Sediment, nutrient, and flood regulation ecosystem services
Floodplains provide critical ecosystem services to people by regulating floodwaters and retaining sediments and nutrients. Geospatial analyses, field data collection, and modeling were integrated to quantify a portfolio of services that floodplains provide to downstream communities within the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds. The portfolio of services included floodplain sediment and n
Hydrology, water-quality, and watershed characteristics in 15 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia, water years 2002–20
Assessing stormwater control measure inventories from 23 cities in the United States
Integrating urban water fluxes and moving beyond impervious surface cover: A review
Learning from arid and urban aquatic ecosystems to inform more sustainable and resilient futures
Urbanization of grasslands in the Denver area affects streamflow responses to rainfall events
Urbanization and stream ecology: Moving the bar on multidisciplinary solutions to wicked urban stream problems
Tracking geomorphic changes after suburban development with a high density of green stormwater infrastructure practices in Montgomery County, Maryland
Closing the gap on wicked urban stream restoration problems: A framework to integrate science and community values
Ephemeral stream network extraction from lidar-derived elevation and topographic attributes in urban and forested landscapes
Streambank and floodplain geomorphic change and contribution to watershed material budgets
Floodplain and Channel Evaluation Tool (FACET)
The Floodplain and Evaluation Tool (FACET) is an open-source python tool that maps the floodplain extent and derives reach-scale summaries of stream and floodplain geomorphic measurements from high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs).
Floodplain and Channel Evaluation Tool: FACET
Stream Channel and Floodplain Metric Toolbox
The Stream Channel and Floodplain Metric Toolbox was developed to demonstrate the feasibility of mapping fluvial geomorphic features from high-resolution bare-earth elevation data.
Science and Products
- Science
Floodplains provide millions of dollars in benefits every year to people in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds
Issue: Floodplains provide important services to people by retaining sediments, nutrients, and floodwaters, thereby improving water quality and reducing flooding impacts. Having information on how the monetary benefit that floodplains provide varies across the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds helps resource managers describe the benefits that floodplains provide in their current state...Unique 20-year study assesses ecosystem response to different types of stormwater management
Issue: Managing stormwater runoff in developing areasRaleigh Bank Erosion Project
The City of Raleigh partnered with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to assist in assessing streambank erosion hotspots along the City of Raleigh’s stream network to support the City’s efforts of prioritizing future stream mitigation projects. Streambank erosion potential will be assessed using remotely sensed light detection and ranging (lidar) data, field assessments of streambank conditions...New dataset available on stream and floodplain geometry to inform restoration decisions
Issue: The need for stream mapping The physical shape of streams and floodplains can provide information about how water, sediment, and other matter moves through the landscape. Streams can have deep channels (tall streambanks) disconnected from the floodplain or wide shallow channels that easily spill over the banks into the floodplain during high flows. Mapping where streams fall along this...New Insights on using Green Stormwater Infrastructure to Reduce Suburban Runoff
The Issue with Runoff Across the United States, suburban development is replacing agricultural and forested lands. In urban and suburban areas, large amounts of stormwater runoff are generated from rooftops and roadways during rain events. Runoff is quickly piped to streams and rivers, leading to flash flooding, stream bank erosion, and damages to stream health. Reducing nutrients, sediment, and...SPARROW Modeling for North Carolina Watersheds
In North Carolina, excessive nutrient and sediment loadings have contributed to the degradation of surface-water quality across the state as a result of agricultural activities and population growth increases. To further understand the influences of human activities and natural processes on surface-water quality, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) developed the SPARROW (SPAtially Referenced...Understanding the Effects of Stormwater Management Practices on Water Quality and Flow
Urban development can have detrimental impacts on streams including altering hydrology, increasing nutrient, sediment, and pollutant loadings, and degrading biological integrity. Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) can be used to mitigate the effects of urban development by retaining large volumes of stormwater runoff and treating runoff to remove pollutants. This project focuses on...Quantifying Floodplain Ecological Processes and Ecosystem Services in the Delaware River Watershed
Floodplain and wetland areas provide critical ecosystem services to local and downstream communities by retaining sediments, nutrients, and floodwaters. The loss of floodplain functionality due to land use conversion and degradation reduces the provisioning of these services. Assessing, quantifying, and valuing floodplain ecosystem services provide a framework to estimate how floodplain systems... - Data
Filter Total Items: 19
Depth grids for floodplain flood attenuation baseline and counterfactual scenarios in the Schuylkill River watershed, Pennsylvania
As part of a study to quantify floodplain flood attenuation ecosystem services, datasets were developed representing a baseline (current floodplain condition) and counterfactual (floodplain flood storage removed) scenario for 18 sites in the Schuylkill River Watershed, Pennsylvania. This data release contains rasters (3-m resolution) of baseline and counterfactual flood depth grids for the 0.5, 0.Watershed characteristics and streamwater constituent load data, models, and estimates for 15 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia, 2000-2021
This data release contains 15 datasets and associated metadata of watershed characteristics and data related to stream water quality and constituent load estimation for 15 study watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Dataset periods vary but range within 2000 to 2021. The 15 datasets are organized as individual child items. The data release includes three Geographic Information System shapefiles:Lidar-derived rasters of point density, elevation, and geomorphological features for 2013, 2015, and 2022 for the Greater Raleigh Area, North Carolina
As part of a collaborative study with the City of Raleigh, North Carolina, the U.S. Geological Survey developed a suite of high-resolution lidar-derived raster datasets for the Greater Raleigh Area, North Carolina, using repeat lidar data from the years 2013, 2015, and 2022. These datasets include raster representations of digital elevation models (DEMs), DEM of difference, the ten most common geoDatasets for Rapid Assessment of Streambank Erosion Potential for Selected Streams throughout the Greater Raleigh Area, North Carolina, 2022
As part of a collaborative study with the City of Raleigh, North Carolina, the U.S. Geological Survey is assessing streambank erosion potential in selected stream reaches throughout the Greater Raleigh metropolitan area. Rapid field measurement techniques were used to assess streambank stability at 124 stream segments between January and March 2022. Field data were collected using the Bank ErosionGeomorphic metrics across four catchments in Clarksburg, Maryland, 2002-19
This dataset contains geomorphic metrics across 32 cross-sections at four catchments within the Clarksburg Special Protection Area in Montgomery County, Maryland. These data were derived from raw cross-sectional data collected by the Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Environmental Protection. Geomorphic metrics include channel area, bed location, channel depth, channel width, and bank moveStream cross-section, benthic macroinvertebrate and fish taxa counts and abundance, and water chemistry data for the Clarksburg study area in Montgomery County, Maryland, 1992 - 2020
Montgomery County, Maryland Department of Environmental Protection has collected datasets to assess the health of streams since the early 1990s. Datasets include geomorphic stream cross-sectional surveys, fish and benthic macroinvertebrate counts and taxa abundance, and water chemistry data collected at the time of benthic and fish sampling (dissolved oxygen, pH, specific conductance, air temperatIndicators of Hydrologic Alteration in North Carolina Catchments
Alterations to stream hydrology, which includes changes in stream geomorphology, are primary impacts of anthropogenic disruption. In North Carolina, hydrological alterations lead to environmental impacts through degraded ecosystems and water quality. In collaboration with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, Division of Mitigation Services (DMS), the USGS South Atlantic Water ScData release for Piloting Urban Ecosystem Accounting for the United States
In this study, we develop urban ecosystem accounts in the U.S., using the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting Experimental Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EEA) framework. Most ecosystem accounts focus on regional and national scales, which are appropriate for many ecosystem services. However, ecosystems provide substantial services in cities, improving quality of life and contributing to resiliPredictions of floodplain and streambank geomorphic change and flux of sediment and nutrients, and streambed characteristics, for stream reaches in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds
Input predictor variables and output predictions from statistical modeling of floodplains, streambanks, and streambeds for each NHDPlusV2 stream reach in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds of the U.S. Mid-Atlantic. Random Forest statistical models using either 1) characteristics of upstream drainage area, or 2) characteristics of upstream drainage area (Wieczorek et al. 2018, https:/Physico-chemical characteristics and sediment and nutrient fluxes of floodplains, streambanks, and streambeds in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds
Dataset includes site averages of measurements of floodplain and streambank sediment physico-chemistry and long-term (dendrogeomorphic) vertical and lateral geomorphic change, and reach scale floodplain width, streambank height, channel width, and streambed particle size. This information was used to calculate fluxes of sediment, fine sediment, sediment-C, sediment-N, and sediment-C of floodplainsGeomorphometry for Streams and Floodplains in the Chesapeake and Delaware Watersheds
Geomorphometry for Streams and Floodplains in the Chesapeake and Delaware Watersheds was generated as part of the project Quantifying Floodplain Ecological Processes and Ecosystem Services in the Delaware River Watershed funded through the William Penn Foundation's Delaware Watershed Research fund. This dataset contains geomorphometry for streams and floodplains in the Chesapeake and Delaware RiveStreamflow and precipitation event statistics for treatment, urban control, and forested control watersheds in Clarksburg, MD USA (2004-2018)
This dataset describes streamflow and precipitation event statistics for four watersheds located in Clarksburg, Maryland, USA. Streamflow and precipitation events were identified from fourteen years of sub-daily (5- and 15-minute) monitoring data from October 1, 2004 through September 30, 2018. A 6-hour inter-event window was used to define discrete streamflow and precipitation events. The followi - Multimedia
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Filter Total Items: 30
Mapping stream and floodplain geomorphometry with the Floodplain and Channel Evaluation Tool
Broad-scale mapping of stream channel and floodplain geomorphic metrics is critical to improve the understanding of geomorphic change, biogeochemical processes, riverine habitat quality, and opportunities for management intervention. The Floodplain and Channel Evaluation Tool (FACET) was developed to provide an open-source tool for automated processing of digital elevation models (DEMs) to generatAuthorsKristina G. Hopkins, Labeeb Ahmed, Peter R. Claggett, Samuel Lamont, Marina Metes, Gregory B. NoeSocietal benefits of floodplains in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds: Sediment, nutrient, and flood regulation ecosystem services
Floodplains provide critical ecosystem services to people by regulating floodwaters and retaining sediments and nutrients. Geospatial analyses, field data collection, and modeling were integrated to quantify a portfolio of services that floodplains provide to downstream communities within the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds. The portfolio of services included floodplain sediment and n
AuthorsKristina G. Hopkins, Jacqueline Sage Welles, Emily J. Pindilli, Gregory B. Noe, Peter Claggett, Labeeb Ahmed, Marina MetesHydrology, water-quality, and watershed characteristics in 15 watersheds in Gwinnett County, Georgia, water years 2002–20
The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources, established the Long-Term Trend Monitoring program in 1996 to monitor and analyze the hydrologic and water-quality conditions in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Gwinnett County is a suburban to urban area northeast of the city of Atlanta in north-central Georgia. The monitoring program currently consists of 15AuthorsBrent T. Aulenbach, Joshua C. Henley, Kristina G. HopkinsAssessing stormwater control measure inventories from 23 cities in the United States
Since the 1987 Clean Water Act Section 319 amendment, the United States Government has required and funded the development of nonpoint source pollution programs with about $5 billion dollars. Despite these expenditures, nonpoint source pollution from urban watersheds is still a significant cause of impaired waters in the United States. Urban stormwater management has rapidly evolved over recent deAuthorsBenjamin Choat, Amber Pulido, Aditi S. Bhaskar, Rebecca L. Hale, Harry X. Zhang, Thomas Meixner, Lauren McPhillips, Kristina G. Hopkins, Jennifer Cherrier, Chingwen ChengIntegrating urban water fluxes and moving beyond impervious surface cover: A review
Though urban areas represent a small fraction of global land cover, they have an outsized impact on hydrological processes. Within these areas, the pathways that water follows are fundamentally transformed by the disturbance of soils, land cover, vegetation, topography, and built infrastructure. While progress has been made across many cities to quantify interactions between hydrological processesAuthorsClaire Oswald, Christa Kelleher, Sarah Ledford, Kristina G. Hopkins, Anneliese Sytsma, Doerthe Tetzlaff, Laura Toran, Carolyn VoterLearning from arid and urban aquatic ecosystems to inform more sustainable and resilient futures
The hydrology and aquatic ecology of arid environments has long been understudied relative to temperate regions. Yet spatially and temporally intermittent and ephemeral waters characterized by flashy hydrographs typify arid regions that comprise a substantial proportion of the Earth. Additionally, drought, intense storms, and human modification of landscapes increasingly affect many temperate regiAuthorsLauren McPhillips, Marta Berbés-Blázquez, Rebecca L. Hale, Tamara K Harms, Vanya Bisht, Lilana Caughman, Sandra Clinton, Elizabeth Cook, Xiaoli Dong, Jennifer Edmonds, Sarah Gergel, Rosa Gomez, Kristina G. Hopkins, David Iwaniec, Yeowon Kim, Amanda Kuhn, Libby Larson, David Bruce Lewis, Eugenía Martí, Monica M. Palta, W. John Roach, Lin YeUrbanization of grasslands in the Denver area affects streamflow responses to rainfall events
A thorough understanding of how urbanization affects stream hydrology is crucial for effective and sustainable water management, particularly in rapidly urbanizing regions. This study presents a comprehensive analysis of changes in streamflow response to rainfall events across a rural to urban gradient in the semi-arid area of Denver, Colorado. We used 8 years of April to October instantaneous strAuthorsStacy Wilson, Aditi S. Bhaskar, Benjamin Choat, Stephanie K. Kampf, Timothy Green, Kristina G. HopkinsUrbanization and stream ecology: Moving the bar on multidisciplinary solutions to wicked urban stream problems
Decades of research on the effects of urbanization on stream ecology have shown that urban stream problems are inherently wicked. These problems are wicked in the sense that they are difficult to solve because information is incomplete, changing, or conflicting and because finding potential solutions often requires input from stakeholders who can have conflicting and competing values. The 5th SympAuthorsMegan L. Fork, Kristina G. Hopkins, Jessica Chappell, Robert J. Hawley, Sujay S. Kaushal, Brian M. Murphy, Blanca Ríos-Touma, Allison H. RoyTracking geomorphic changes after suburban development with a high density of green stormwater infrastructure practices in Montgomery County, Maryland
Stream morphology is affected by changes on the surrounding landscape. Understanding the effects of urbanization on stream morphology is a critical factor for land managers to maintain and improve vulnerable stream corridors in urbanizing landscapes. Stormwater practices are used in urban landscapes to manage runoff volumes and peak flows, potentially mitigating alterations to the flow regime thatAuthorsBrianna Williams, Kristina G. Hopkins, Marina Metes, Daniel Jones, Stephanie Gordon, William Bradley HamiltonClosing the gap on wicked urban stream restoration problems: A framework to integrate science and community values
Restoring the health of urban streams has many of the characteristics of a wicked problem. Addressing a wicked problem requires managers, academics, practitioners, and community members to make negotiated tradeoffs and compromises to satisfy the values and perspectives of diverse stakeholders involved in setting restoration project goals and objectives. We conducted a gap analysis on 11 urban streAuthorsBrian M. Murphy, Kathryn L Russell, Charles C. Stillwell, Robert J. Hawley, Mateo Scoggins, Kristina G. Hopkins, Matthew J. Burns, Kristine T. Taniguchi-Quan, Kate H Macneale, Robert F. SmithEphemeral stream network extraction from lidar-derived elevation and topographic attributes in urban and forested landscapes
Under-representations of headwater channels in digital stream networks can result in uncertainty in the magnitude of headwater habitat loss, stream burial, and watershed function. Increased availability of high-resolution (<2 m) elevation data makes the delineation of headwater channels more attainable. In this study, elevation data derived from light detection and ranging was used to predict epheAuthorsMarina Metes, Daniel Jones, Matthew E. Baker, Andrew J. Miller, Dianna M. Hogan, J.V. Loperfido, Kristina G. HopkinsStreambank and floodplain geomorphic change and contribution to watershed material budgets
Stream geomorphic change is highly spatially variable but critical to landform evolution, human infrastructure, habitat, and watershed pollutant transport. However, measurements and process models of streambank erosion and floodplain deposition and resulting sediment fluxes are currently insufficient to predict these rates in all perennial streams over large regions. Here we measured long-term latAuthorsGregory B. Noe, Kristina G. Hopkins, Peter Claggett, Edward R. Schenk, Marina Metes, Labeeb Ahmed, Tom Doody, Cliff R. Hupp - Software
Floodplain and Channel Evaluation Tool (FACET)
The Floodplain and Evaluation Tool (FACET) is an open-source python tool that maps the floodplain extent and derives reach-scale summaries of stream and floodplain geomorphic measurements from high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs).
Floodplain and Channel Evaluation Tool: FACET
FACET is a Python tool that uses open source modules to map the floodplain extent and derive reach-scale summaries of stream and floodplain geomorphic measurements from high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs). Geomorphic measurements include channel width, stream bank height, floodplain width, and stream slope. FACET allows the user to hydrologically condition the DEM, generate the streamStream Channel and Floodplain Metric Toolbox
The Stream Channel and Floodplain Metric Toolbox was developed to demonstrate the feasibility of mapping fluvial geomorphic features from high-resolution bare-earth elevation data.
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