Lorraine E Flint (Former Employee)
Science and Products
Inundation Area '06 New Year's Flood in the Laguna-Mark West Drainage
Effects of Climate on Snowmelt and Water Availability for Reservoirs in the Southern Sierra Nevada
Geohydrology of the Big Bear Valley
Basin Characterization Model (BCM)
Development of unimpaired flows for mountain basins draining to the Bay Delta
Bay Area Ensemble Modeling for Conservation and Biodiversity
Networking the California Climate Commons with the USGS Geo Data Portal
Using Climate and Water Models to Examine Future Water Availability and Biodiversity in California and the Great Basin
Scenarios of climate adaptation potential on protected working lands from management of soils
Characterization of hydrology and sediment transport following drought and wildfire in Cache Creek, California
A multi-scale soil moisture monitoring strategy for California: Design and validation
Characterizing the influence of fire on hydrology in southern California
Increasing soil organic carbon to mitigate greenhouse gases and increase climate resiliency for California
Rio Grande transboundary integrated hydrologic model and water-availability analysis, New Mexico and Texas, United States, and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico
Errata**September 28, 2018: The purpose of a USGS Open-file report (OFR) is dissemination of information that must be released immediately to fill a public need or information that is not sufficiently refined to warrant publication in one of the other USGS series. As part of that refinement process, an error was discovered in one of the input data sets of the Rio Grande Transboundary Integrated Hy
Soil moisture datasets at five sites in the central Sierra Nevada and northern Coast Ranges, California
High‐elevation evapotranspiration estimates during drought: Using streamflow and NASA Airborne Snow Observatory SWE observations to vlose the upper Tuolumne River Basin eater balance
Characterizing drought in California: new drought indices and scenario-testing in support of resource management
Climate change refugia and habitat connectivity promote species persistence
Erosion of refugia in the Sierra Nevada meadows network with climate change
Climate change influences on pollinator, forest, and farm interactions across a climate gradient
Science and Products
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Filter Total Items: 20
Inundation Area '06 New Year's Flood in the Laguna-Mark West Drainage
The Laguna de Santa Rosa, located in Sonoma County, California, flows into Mark West Creek, which drains into the Russian River. The Laguna-Mark West drainage is the largest drainage contributing to the Russian River, encompassing approximately 21% of the total Russian River basin. Runoff from precipitation in headwater areas enters fast-flowing creeks that transport water and sediment downstream...Effects of Climate on Snowmelt and Water Availability for Reservoirs in the Southern Sierra Nevada
Potential changes in air temperature and precipitation due to changes in climate may result in more variable or smaller snow packs and earlier snowmelt in the southern Sierra Nevada in upcoming years. These conditions are likely to result in increased difficulty in planning reservoir operations for hydroelectric power and water availability during springtime snowmelt in this region. Reservoir...Geohydrology of the Big Bear Valley
The study develops a greater understanding of the hydrology of the Big Bear Valley ground-water basin and allows the Big Bear Valley Community Services District to better manage and utilize the resource. The study will address the effects of urbanization and suburbanization on water resources and the effects of climate on water resources, issues 1 and 7 from the Strategic Directions for the Water...Basin Characterization Model (BCM)
The Basin Characterization Model (BCM) is a simple grid-based model that calculates the water balance for any time step or spatial scale by using climate inputs, precipitation, minimum and maximum air temperature. The BCM can translate fine-scale maps of climate trends and projections into the hydrologic consequences, to permit evaluation of the impacts to water availability at regional, watershed...Development of unimpaired flows for mountain basins draining to the Bay Delta
The objective of this study is to develop daily historical climate surfaces and simulate unimpaired basin discharge, including surface water flow and baseflow, from all basins that drain to the Bay Delta. Basin drainage will be calibrated to DWR reconstructed flows, and comparisons of results will be made with other independently developed watershed models for basins in which they coincide. A...Bay Area Ensemble Modeling for Conservation and Biodiversity
The objective of this study is to provide downscaled ensemble projections of climate and hydrology for the next century for the state of California with specific application to the San Francisco Bay Area.Networking the California Climate Commons with the USGS Geo Data Portal
The California Climate Commons (CCC) and USGS Geo Data Portal (GDP) teams have collaborated to curate and host California and Great Basin Characterization Model (BCM) results. The CCC has successfully set up a web-server and installed needed software to serve these model results using data and web service standards that are compatible with the GDP. All raw monthly data has been transferred to thUsing Climate and Water Models to Examine Future Water Availability and Biodiversity in California and the Great Basin
As the predicted impacts of climate change are becoming more apparent, natural resource managers are faced with the task of developing climate adaptation plans. These managers need state-of-the-art, scientifically based information upon which to base these management plans and decisions consistently across California and the Great Basin. This project applies historical, current, and projected clim - Data
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Scenarios of climate adaptation potential on protected working lands from management of soils
Management of protected lands may enhance ecosystem services that conservation programs were designed to protect. Practices that build soil organic matter (SOM) on agricultural lands also increase soil water holding capacity, potentially reducing climatic water deficit (CWD), increasing actual evapotranspiration (AET) and increasing groundwater recharge (RCH). We developed nine spatially-explicitAuthorsKristin B. Byrd, P. Alvarez, Benjamin Sleeter, Lorraine E. Flint, D. Richard Cameron, J. CrequeCharacterization of hydrology and sediment transport following drought and wildfire in Cache Creek, California
The worst drought in California in over 1,200 years occurred between 2012-2017 (Griffin, 2014), depleting surface water and groundwater supply and drying out the soils past wilting point. In the summer of 2015, the Jerusalem and Rocky fires burned roughly 40,000 acres within the Cache Creek watershed. To fully characterize the post-fire effects in the Cache Creek watershed, an hourly model of streAuthorsMichelle A. Stern, Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L. FlintA multi-scale soil moisture monitoring strategy for California: Design and validation
A multi‐scale soil moisture monitoring strategy for California was designed to inform water resource management. The proposed workflow classifies soil moisture response units (SMRUs) using publicly available datasets that represent soil, vegetation, climate, and hydrology variables, which control soil water storage. The SMRUs were classified, using principal component analysis and unsupervised K‐mAuthorsJennifer Curtis, Lorraine E. Flint, Michelle A. SternCharacterizing the influence of fire on hydrology in southern California
The chaparral-dominated national forests of southern California were in part established to provide water provision services to the surrounding urban populations and irrigation for agriculture. However, water provision in the form of groundwater recharge and surface runoff depends on the climatological conditions of any given year and also landscape-scale disturbances such as fire. Fire is increasAuthorsLorraine E. Flint, Emma C Underwood, Alan L. Flint, Allan HollanderIncreasing soil organic carbon to mitigate greenhouse gases and increase climate resiliency for California
Rising air temperatures are projected to continue to drive up urban, agricultural, and rangeland water use, straining both surface and groundwater resources. Scientific studies have shown that managing farms, ranches, and public lands to increase soil carbon can increase soil waterholding capacity and increase hydrologic benefits such as increased baseflows and aquifer recharge, reduced flooding aAuthorsLorraine E. Flint, Alan L. Flint, Michelle A. Stern, Allegra Mayer, Whendee L. Silver, Clyde Casey, Fabiano Franco, Kristin B. Byrd, Benjamin M. Sleeter, P. Alvarez, J. Creque, T. Estrada, D. CameronRio Grande transboundary integrated hydrologic model and water-availability analysis, New Mexico and Texas, United States, and Northern Chihuahua, Mexico
Errata**September 28, 2018: The purpose of a USGS Open-file report (OFR) is dissemination of information that must be released immediately to fill a public need or information that is not sufficiently refined to warrant publication in one of the other USGS series. As part of that refinement process, an error was discovered in one of the input data sets of the Rio Grande Transboundary Integrated Hy
AuthorsRandall T. Hanson, Andre B. Ritchie, Scott E. Boyce, Ian Ferguson, Amy E. Galanter, Lorraine E. Flint, Wesley R. HensonSoil moisture datasets at five sites in the central Sierra Nevada and northern Coast Ranges, California
In situ soil moisture datasets are important inputs used to calibrate and validate watershed, regional, or statewide modeled and satellite-based soil moisture estimates. The soil moisture dataset presented in this report includes hourly time series of the following: soil temperature, volumetric water content, water potential, and total soil water content. Data were collected by the U.S. GeologicalAuthorsMichelle A. Stern, Frank A. Anderson, Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L. FlintHigh‐elevation evapotranspiration estimates during drought: Using streamflow and NASA Airborne Snow Observatory SWE observations to vlose the upper Tuolumne River Basin eater balance
Hydrologic variables such as evapotranspiration (ET) and soil water storage are difficult to observe across spatial scales in complex terrain. Streamflow and lidar‐derived snow observations provide information about distributed hydrologic processes such as snowmelt, infiltration, and storage. We use a distributed streamflow data set across eight basins in the upper Tuolumne River region of YosemitAuthorsBrian Henn, Thomas H. Painter, Kathryn J. Bormann, Bruce McGurk, Alan L. Flint, Lorraine E. Flint, Vince White, Jessica D. LundquistCharacterizing drought in California: new drought indices and scenario-testing in support of resource management
IntroductionCalifornia’s recent drought (2012–2016) has implications throughout the state for natural resource management and adaptation planning and has generated many discussions about drought characterization and recovery. This study characterizes drought conditions with two indices describing deficits in natural water supply and increases in landscape stress developed on the basis of water balAuthorsLorraine E. Flint, Alan L. Flint, John Mendoza, Julie Kalansky, F. M. RalphClimate change refugia and habitat connectivity promote species persistence
BackgroundClimate change refugia, areas buffered from climate change relative to their surroundings, are of increasing interest as natural resource managers seek to prioritize climate adaptation actions. However, evidence that refugia buffer the effects of anthropogenic climate change is largely missing.MethodsFocusing on the climate-sensitive Belding’s ground squirrel (Urocitellus beldingi), we pAuthorsToni Lyn Morelli, Sean P. Maher, Marisa C. W. Lim, Christina Kastely, Lindsey M. Eastman, Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L. Flint, Steven R. Beissinger, Craig MoritzErosion of refugia in the Sierra Nevada meadows network with climate change
Climate refugia management has been proposed as a climate adaptation strategy in the face of global change. Key to this strategy is identification of these areas as well as an understanding of how they are connected on the landscape. Focusing on meadows of the Sierra Nevada in California, we examined multiple factors affecting connectivity using circuit theory, and determined how patches have beenAuthorsSean P. Maher, Toni Lyn Morelli, Michelle Hershey, Alan L. Flint, Lorraine E. Flint, Craig Moritz, Steven R. BeissingerClimate change influences on pollinator, forest, and farm interactions across a climate gradient
Climate impact models are often implemented at horizontal resolutions (“scales”) too coarse to be readily applied in local impact assessments. However, recent advancements in fine-scale modeling are allowing the creation of impact models that can be applied to landscape-scale adaptation planning. Here, we illustrate the use of fine-scale impact models for landscape-scale adaptation planning of polAuthorsLee Hannah, Marc Steele, Emily Fung, Pablo Imbach, Lorraine E. Flint, Alan L. Flint