This guide is designed to help participants involved in federal hydropower licensing processes or water rights adjudications (including regulators, applicants, agencies, tribes, and other stakeholders) better understand, assess, and design flows to protect aesthetic resources. It is intended to fill the gap between legal mandates recognizing the aesthetic values of water, and the protocols for assessing and protecting these values. It provides a common framework for requesting, designing, or reviewing flow-aesthetics studies as well as guidance on specific methods for conducting those studies.
Produced with support from the National Park Service Hydropower Assistance Program, Hydropower Reform Coalition, Confluence Research and Consulting, and Oregon State University.