A Decision Framework for Managing the Spirit Lake and Toutle River System at Mount St. Helens

A Decision Framework for Managing the Spirit Lake and Toutle River System at Mount St. Helens
Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2018-03-29
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0309464471

The 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in southwest Washington State radically changed the physical and socio-economic landscapes of the region. The eruption destroyed the summit of the volcano, sending large amounts of debris into the North Fork Toutle River, and blocking the sole means of drainage from Spirit Lake 4 miles north of Mount St. Helens. As a result of the blockage, rising lake levels could cause failure of the debris blockage, putting the downstream population of approximately 50,000 at risk of catastrophic flooding and mud flows. Further, continued transport of sediment to the river from volcanic debris deposits surrounding the mountain reduces the flood carrying capacity of downstream river channels and leaves the population vulnerable to chronic flooding. The legacy of the 1980 eruption and the prospect of future volcanic, seismic, and flood events mean that risk management in the Spirit Lake Toutle River system will be challenging for decades to come. This report offers a decision framework to support the long-term management of risks related to the Spirit Lake and Toutle River system in light of the different regional economic, cultural, and social priorities, and the respective roles of federal, tribal, state, and local authorities, as well as other entities and groups in the region. It also considers the history and adequacy of characterization, monitoring, and management associated with the Spirit Lake debris blockage and outflow tunnel, other efforts to control transport of water and sediment from the 1980 and later eruptions, and suggests additional information needed to support implementation of the recommended decision framework.

GAO Documents

GAO Documents
Author: United States. General Accounting Office
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1010
Release:
Genre:
ISBN:

Catalog of reports, decisions and opinions, testimonies and speeches.

Rehabilitating Damaged Ecosystems

Rehabilitating Damaged Ecosystems
Author: Jr. Cairns
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 446
Release: 2017-12-14
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1351419234

Built on a strong foundation in restoration ecology, this unique handbook provides practitioners, academics, and managers with vital tools needed to plan for ecosystem conservation, to restore degraded ecosystems, to make cost-effective restoration decisions, and to understand important legal issues. Rehabilitation of Damaged Ecosystems, Second Edition boasts three completely new chapters and five major chapter revisions. Coastal wetlands restoration, watershed rehabilitation and management, mined land reclamation, revegetation of disturbed ecosystems, and river and stream restoration are only a few of the critical topics explored in this timely reference handbook. This Second Edition provides valuable, reliable data as well as practical methods and techniques for the ongoing fight to protect natural resources and restore damaged ecosystems.

Flood Hydrology

Flood Hydrology
Author: V.P. Singh
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9400939574

Floods constitute a persistent and serious problem throughout the United States and many other parts of the world. They are responsible for losses amounting to billions of dollars and scores of deaths annually. Virtually all parts of the nation--coastal, moun tainous and rural--are affected by them. Two aspects of the problem of flooding that have long been topics of scientific inquiry are flood frequency and risk analyses. Many new, even improved, tech niques have recently been developed for performing these analyses. Nevertheless, actual experience points out that the frequency of say a 100-year flood, in lieu of being encountered on the average once in one hundred years, may be as little as once in 25 years. It is therefore appropriate to pause and ask where we are, where we are going and where we ought to be going with regard to the technology of flood frequency and risk analyses. One way to address these ques tions is to provide a forum where people from all quarters of the world can assemble, discuss and share their experience and expertise pertaining to flood frequency and risk analyses. This is what con stituted the motivation for organizing the International Symposium on Flood Frequency and Risk Analyses held May 14-17, 1986, at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.