A review and synthesis of existing information were used to develop riverine and lacustrine habitat models for common shiner (Notropis cornutus). The models are scaled to produce an index of habitat suitability between 0 (unsuitable habitat) to 1 (optimally suitable habitat) for the northeastern range of the common shiner in North America. Habitat suitability indexes (HSI's) are designed for use with the habitat evaluation procedures developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Also included are discussions of Suitability Index (SI) curves as used in the Instream Flow Incremental Methodology (IFIM) and SI curves available for an IFIM analysis of smallmouth bass habitat.