As far as data goes, I'm working with NHD .shp files, 10m DEMs, and some LIDAR data.

My goal is to determine gradient for 100m segments of a network of streams.

I'm already able to do this, but I expect that my workflow is nonideal, especially in that I can't deal with branched networks at all.

If you all were going about this, what sort of steps would you use?