Agent-Based Approach Enhances Conventional Aquatic Habitat Description and Species Utilization Methods

Sustainable water resource management requires a "first principles" based understanding of the relationship between environmental stimuli and habitat utilization by target aquatic biota. This understanding is the critical foundation upon which flow management tools are developed that accurately forecast how habitats (and ultimately the aquatic populations they support) change in response to alternative water resource management plans. Emerging methods provide highly resolved descriptions of the physicochemical regimes that influence individual animal movement to supplement methods to accurately track movements of individuals. Emerging methods can be integrated using a Eulerian-Lagrangian-agent method (ELAM) in which (1) the Eulerian framework is used to describe the physical, hydrodynamic, and water quality domains, (2) the Lagrangian framework is used to describe sensory perception and movement trajectories of individuals, and (3) the agent framework is used to describe the behavior decisions of individuals. We discuss a generalized conceptual foundation for describing environmental habitat and stimuli in a manner consistent with animal perception and compatible with ELAM models.