HR: 1340h
AN: H53D-0503    [Abstracts]
TI: Geomorphology of Channel-Floodplain Systems in Urban Drainage Networks
AU: * Smith, J A
EM: jsmith@princeton.edu
AF: Princeton University, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Eng., Princeton, NJ 08544 United States
AU: Miller, A J
EM: miller@umbc.edu
AF: Dept. of Geography and Environmental Systems UMBC, 1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 United States
AU: Baeck, M L
EM: mlbaeck@princeton.edu
AF: Princeton University, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Eng., Princeton, NJ 08544 United States
AB: A combined field and numerical modeling study of the geomorphology of urban rivers is presented in which the urban riparian zone is treated as a mosaic of natural, constructed and anthropogenically modified landscape elements. Urban infrastructure has typically been considered the province of civil engineering rather than earth science, whereas geomorphic analysis of urban impacts on stream channels has focused on the response of natural channels to alterations in the flux of water and sediment. The field and numerical modeling studies that form the methodological core of the study draw upon observations from the Dead Run drainage basin in the Baltimore metropolitan region. Hypotheses that motivate this study concern the geometric properties of the urban drainage network, the longitudinal sequencing of landforms both natural and artificial, and the interaction between that longitudinal sequence and propagation of flood waves, transient patterns of floodplain inundation, patterns of aggradation and scour, and the spatial distribution of channel instability. We will develop a typology of urban channel-floodplain systems based on quantitative analysis of a LiDAR data set that encompasses the entire drainage network, and as part of the study we will also reassess the application of bankfull hydraulic geometry concepts to the analysis of urban streams. An additional component involves the development and application of a new approach to the definition of bankfull flow based on examination of transient 2-dimensional flow patterns derived from hydraulic modeling.
DE: 1821 Floods
DE: 1825 Geomorphology: fluvial (1625)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005