HR: 1340h
AN: H53C-1281    [Abstracts]
TI: Planform Dynamics on an Urbanizing New England River
AU: * Daniels, M D
EM: melinda.daniels@uconn.edu
AF: University of Connecticut Department of Geography, Unit 4148 215 Glenbrook Rd, Storrs, CT 06269 United States
AU: McCusker, M
EM: MEGAN.MCCUSKER@UCONN.EDU
AF: University of Connecticut Department of Geography, Unit 4148 215 Glenbrook Rd, Storrs, CT 06269 United States
AB: Historical GIS-based analysis was used to quantify channel planform change on the Pomperaug River, Connecticut, over the last seventy years. During this time period, the Pomperaug River watershed has incurred radical land use changes, transitioning from a predominantly agricultural watershed to a combination of re-forestation and urbanization with an increase in population and development. In order to link these land-use transformations to changes within the river system, historical aerial photographs were collected for six years including, 1934, 1941, 1951, 1970, 1990, and 1995. Aerial photographs were digitally scanned and imported into ArcView, where they were georectified to an orthorectified reference base image. This enabled us to accurately create a digitized centerline of the river for each photograph. The channel centerline was then buffered to a distance equal to that of the root mean squared error (RMS error), calculated separately for each photo during the georectifying process. Each buffered centerline was then overlaid to quantify planform changes over time and space. Results show reduction in sinuosity, and variability in rates of channel migration through time.
DE: 1824 Geomorphology (1625)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting