Current Shade Effects

· What are the effects of current streamside vegetation on thermal energy to streams?

Step 1: Go to NetMap Riparian Module > Current Shade-Thermal Energy. This tool allows you to apply estimates of current vegetation (basal area and height, using data such as LEMMA) and how the shade reduces (or not) the thermal energy reaching the stream channel.

· Which stream segments in a watershed would benefit most from increasing riparian shade?

Step 1: Go to NetMap Riparian Module > Current Shade-Thermal Energy. This tool allows you to apply estimates of current vegetation (basal area and height, using data such as LEMMA) and how the shade reduces (or not) the thermal energy reaching the stream channel. It also allows a user to select a hypothetical maximum shade value (based on basal area and tree height, but note that the shade model has increasing shade with increasing basal area but decreasing shade with increasing tree height - for more information, see tool) and then compare the existing with the maximum thermal energy; this allows identifying stream segments where increased shade would have the largest potential cooling effect.