HR: 16:15h
AN: H34C-02 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Morphodynamics of River Lowlands and Deltas: Combining Historical Maps with Satellite Data
AU: * Syvitski, J P
EM: james.syvitski@colorado.edu
AF: INSTAAR, Univ Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0450, United States
AU: Hannon, M
EM: mark.hannon@colorado.edu
AF: INSTAAR, Univ Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0450, United States
AU: Kettner, A J
EM: kettner@colorado.edu
AF: INSTAAR, Univ Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0450, United States
AU: Jenkins, C J
EM: chris.jenkins@colorado.edu
AF: INSTAAR, Univ Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0450, United States
AU: Hutton, E W
EM: eric.hutton@colorado.edu
AF: INSTAAR, Univ Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309-0450, United States
AB: Cartographers have for centuries documented the courses of rivers and their delta's distributary channels. Yet these valuable historical maps have not often been placed into a Global Information System, and verified for their cartographic accuracy. We have obtained between 6 and 15 historical maps (17th – 20th century) for a set of global deltas (Indus, Ganges, Godavari, Krishna, Mahanadi, Brahmani, Yellow, Vistula Danube, Po, Rhone, Niger, Nile, Orinoco, Magdalena, Amazon, and Mississippi). The maps were examined for their registration accuracy, using the location of between 8 and 15 cities or towns. Those maps with RMS errors of less than 5 km had shape files established for the pathways of their rivers and distributary channels. Geolocated Space Shuttle Radar data were binned into 1 m topographic units (? 90 m horizontal footprint) for each river-delta system and used in combination with LANDSAT ETM+ (15-30 m horizontal footprint), as an underlay to each of the historical maps. The satellite data proved useful in verifying the historical courses of these channels, many of which are no longer active. Together the data provide valuable insight to the time dependent dynamics of distributary channel switching and migration, before the heavy anthropogenic footprint of the 20th century (river diversions through barrages, upstream damming of the sediment supply, mitigation of the seasonal flood wave, levee development and stabilization, human-affected delta subsidence, and agricultural infrastructure).
DE: 1800 HYDROLOGY
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects (4802, 4902)
DE: 1855 Remote sensing (1640)
DE: 1856 River channels (0483, 0744)
DE: 1861 Sedimentation (4863)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting