There are many factors involved, mostly drainage size, rainfall, soils, channel entrenchment and gradient, water diversions and uses. I have a Researchgate ~2001 paper that may give you some indicators on stream types and management implecations that may be helpful in your evaluations.
I was indirectly involved with a study of stream permanence and source waters with South Carolina DHEC and EPA in SC. North Carolina has some of this source water issue measuring and attempting to type streams by their flow permanence. One of the tools used was a HOBO instrument that they may have modified to do this, that when the water came up, it would record the time that the current could be measured between the probes, and when the water was not flowing, no current could pass signally it was dry. By installing at various sites along a stream, they could tell how many days or hours of flow during the year, and could compare that with rainfall and time of year, other permanent stream gauging stations, etc. There were periods of repeated wet-dry that made it difficult to interpret the fine detail.
If you have some stream gauging stations in the vicinity with real time recording, you can find out when low flows are occurring by reviewing the streamflow or well data or it is just real dry for an extended period and trees are growing, pulling stream water down to a relatively low flow, then just walk up some stream sections and see where the flow permanence breaks into intermittent pools to dry conditions.
Probably the best is to install a recording transducer for water level in the stream of interest. The HOBO transducers are the least expensive that I am aware of.
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