Rocky Mountain Research Station Home > Science Program Areas > Air, Water and Aquatics > Boise Lab Stream Valley Confinement

Valley Bottom Confinement Introduction

Valley bottom confinement is a digital representation of valley form.  Unconfined valley bottoms generally exhibit different geomorphic features from confined valleys and thus serve different roles in the landscape.  Valley confinement may have effects on fish species distributions, sediment transport, grain size, and debris flow conveyance.   The links below briefly describe our projects using valley confinement for physical and biological applications.

Nagel, D., 2010.  A Brief Overview of a Valley Bottom Confinement Algorithm.  AWAE Seminar, February 16, Boise, ID.

Presentation [1892 KB PDF]

Nagel, D., 2007. Comparison of Two Methods for Identifying Low Gradient, Unconfined Streams and Valley Bottom Extent, In Support of Stream Temperature Modeling Associated with Fire Effects. FS/BLM GeoSpatial 2007 Conference, Portland, OR, May 7 - 11.

Poster [223 KB PDF]

Nagel, D., 2005.  Estimating Valley Confinement with DEM Data to Support Cutthroat Trout Research. 2005 Resource Management Tools and Geospatial Conference, Phoenix, Arizona, April 18 – 22.  Conference presentation, April 2005.

Presentation [13,037 KB PDF]

Contacts:

David Nagel

email: dnagel [at]fs.fed.us
phone: 208-373-4397

Seth Wenger

email:swenger [at]tu.org

phone: 208-373-4386

Other Links:

Trout Unlimited