HR: 1330h
AN: H12B-1002    [PDF]
TI: A Time-Integrated Geospatial Database of 20th Century Modifications of the Mississippi River System
AU: * Heine, R A
EM: rheine@siu.edu
AF: Environmental Resources and Policy, Southern Illinois University Mail Code 4324, Carbondale, IL 62901-4324 United States
AU: Pinter, N
EM: npinter@geo.siu.edu
AF: Department of Geology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901 United States
AB: As part of a multi-year NSF-funded grant looking at changing flow conditions on the Mississippi River System, we are building a time-integrated geospatial database of engineering activities along the Mississippi and the Lower Missouri Rivers. This paper is intended to present the goals of the database, report on its current status, and present some preliminary results and illustrations. The spatial scope of the database includes the entire navigable length of the Mississippi and the Lower Missouri Rivers, and the temporal scope of the database extends back to the middle of the 19th century. The research project in which we are developing the database is designed to establish the empirical links between river engineering structures and activities and changes in flood probabilities and flood levels that may result. The project involves four principle steps: (1) compilation of historic hydrologic data, (2) specific-gage analysis, (3) construction of GIS-based geospatial database of engineering data, and (4) geo-statistical analysis to determine which independent variables, to what degree, and in what combination, control the observed shifts in flood response. We have assembled historic hydrologic data sets of daily stage and discharge at each long-term rated gage on the Mississippi and Lower Missouri Rivers in digital format. Specific-gage analysis of the hydrologic data has now been completed in order to identify changes in flood behavior at each gaging station over time. The most significant result from the SGA was that at most gages on the Lower and Middle Mississippi and on the Lower Missouri River the stages associated with large-discharge flows rose systematically over the durations of record. To implement the third step, spatial data is being collected in order to construct a geographical information system (GIS) database of the spatial and temporal distribution and nature of engineering structures in the study area. GIS layers include location of levees, with their year of emplacement and elevations coded, wing dams (a.k.a. dikes, groins, or jetties), including year of emplacement and extension, revetments, bridges, meander cutoffs, diversions, dams, and where available channel bathymetry.
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects
DE: 1821 Floods
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting