Chiu, G., Guttorp, P. Stream Health Index for the Puget Sound Lowland. Environmetrics. University of Washington, Department of Statistics. Volume 17, Number 3. Pages 285-307

Streams, Water quality, Benthic, Tools

This paper presents the stream health index for the Puget Sound Lowland (SHIPSL), which is a metric for evaluating benthic stream health. The tool uses benthic taxonomy data and a statistically standardized scoring system. The paper also compares the SHIPSL tool to the benthic index of biotic integrity (B-IBI) using bootstrap simulations. The results indicate that SHIPSL minimizes variability and bias when compared to B-IBI.