Stream Physical Assessment

Stream in the Difficult Run Watershed

From 2002 to 2003, a comprehensive assessment of the physical conditions of streams in Fairfax County was conducted. The completion of this project represents a major milestone in the county's watershed planning program, and will provide necessary information for the development of management plans for the county's thirty watersheds.

The purpose of the stream physical assessment was to collect information on and document the following:

Habitat conditions (habitat assessment)
Impacts on the stream from specific infrastructure and problem areas (infrastructure inventory)
General stream characteristics
Geomorphic (the physical state of the stream channel) classification of stream type

The stream assessment was comprised of a habitat assessment and an inventory of physical stream features based on protocols developed specifically for this project. The habitat assessment (scoring of various habitat parameters) and the inventory (characterization of physical features such as pipelines, utilities, and buffers) together provide a baseline of overall stream conditions, which can be further extrapolated to indicate the condition of the associated watershed.