Alyssa Obester

Profile image for Alyssa Obester

Emeritus Research Staff
Emeritus Technical Staff
Alumni

  • California Department of Fish and Wildlife
  • Santa Barbara

Bio

Alyssa worked at the Center for Watershed Sciences from 2018-2020 where she was involved with environmental flow projects throughout the state, including being part of the California Environmental Flows Framework (CEFF) technical team. Alyssa is now an environmental scientist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Instream Flow Program, where she conducts instream flow studies and develops flow criteria for watersheds across the state. In her current position, she continues to collaborate with CWS researchers via CEFF.

Education and Degree(s)
  • B.S., Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Davis; minor in Environmental Policy, June 2014
  • M.S., Environmental Science and Management with an emphasis in Water Resources, Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, June 2017
Research Interests & Expertise
  • Environmental Flows
  • Water Management
  • Water Policy
  • Stream Ecology
  • Hydrology

Alyssa Obester's Recent Projects

California Environmental Flows Framework

The California Environmental Flows Framework (CEFF) provides an approach for determining ecological flow criteria and guidance for developing environmental flow recommendations that can accommodate a variety of stream types and biological communities, while supporting regulatory and management agency programs aimed at protecting beneficial uses for aquatic life. CEFF applies a Functional Flows approach and provides ecological flow criteria based on the natural variability of ecologically-relevant functional flow metrics. It provides a process for considering physical and biological constraints within a stream system and provides guidance on developing environmental flow recommendations that balance ecological and water management objectives.