A study to investigate the integration of hydrologic recovery models into a process based hydrologic simulation model platform

Hydrologic recovery models have been developed that closely indicate how second growth stands compare to old growth stands in intercepting precipitation. Other models for predicting the influence of forest cover on stream peak flows are under development based on existing hydrology simulators. These models use different stand descriptors than the hydrologic recovery model and therefore require adaptation to provide a more useful representation for predicting how forest harvesting and regeneration influence peak flows. The research objective was to determine if there is a relationship between stand descriptors so that the models can be combined to better predict how forest harvesting and regeneration influences peak flows. Field measurements of stand height, leaf area index (LAI), and canopy closure determined there is a relationship between each descriptor with the strongest relationship occurring between LAI and stand height, and between canopy closure and stand height.