UC Davis

This thesis introduces the Functional Flows Adaptive Implementation Model (FFAIM), a framework for distributing a variable environmental flow budget throughout the year using a Functional Flows approach to prioritize key features of the natural flow regime that structure hydrologic seasonality for healthy ecosystem self-regulation. This framework provides (1) continuous scaling of functional environmental flow schedules by water year percentile and (2) an optimization structure for real-time adaptive operation of an annually varying environmental flow budget with periodically updated unimpaired flow forecasts. This functional flow implementation shows how unimpaired flow forecasts can inform environmental flow operations that preserve natural patterns of interannual and seasonal flow variability with a limited proportional environmental flow budget. This framework is demonstrated for the Lower Tuolumne River to shape and shift flows in accordance with the 2018 Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary or Bay-Delta Plan (Bay-Delta Plan).