Trends in Suspended-Sediment Loads and Concentrations in the Mississippi River Basin, 1950?2009

Trends in Suspended-Sediment Loads and Concentrations in the Mississippi River Basin, 1950?2009
Author: U.S. Department of the Interior
Publisher: CreateSpace
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2014-07-23
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 9781499639469

Trends in loads and concentrations of suspended sedi-ment and suspended sand generally were downward for sta-tions within the Mississippi River Basin during the 60-, 34-, and 12-year periods analyzed. Sediment transport in the lower Mississippi River has historically been, and continues to be, most closely correlative to sediment contributions from the Missouri River, which generally carried the largest annual suspended-sediment load of the major Mississippi River sub-basins. The closure of Fort Randall Dam in the upper Missouri River in 1952 was the single largest event in the recorded historical decline of suspended-sediment loads in the Missis-sippi River Basin.

Louisiana's Response to Extreme Weather

Louisiana's Response to Extreme Weather
Author: Shirley Laska
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 361
Release: 2019-11-12
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 3030272052

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book takes an in-depth look at Louisiana as a state which is ahead of the curve in terms of extreme weather events, both in frequency and magnitude, and in its responses to these challenges including recovery and enhancement of resiliency. Louisiana faced a major tropical catastrophe in the 21st century, and experiences the fastest rising sea level. Weather specialists, including those concentrating on sea level rise acknowledge that what the state of Louisiana experiences is likely to happen to many more, and not necessarily restricted to coastal states. This book asks and attempts to answer what Louisiana public officials, scientists/engineers, and those from outside of the state who have been called in to help, have done to achieve resilient recovery. How well have these efforts fared to achieve their goals? What might these efforts offer as lessons for those states that will be likely to experience enhanced extreme weather? Can the challenges of inequality be truly addressed in recovery and resilience? How can the study of the Louisiana response as a case be blended with findings from later disasters such as New York/New Jersey (Hurricane Sandy) and more recent ones to improve understanding as well as best adaptation applications – federal, state and local?

Sediment Response to Large-scale Environmental Change

Sediment Response to Large-scale Environmental Change
Author: Richard P. R. Pannell
Publisher:
Total Pages: 150
Release: 1999
Genre:
ISBN:

Knowledge about sediment yields is important in developing management strategies for fluvial systems. The effect of sediment must be considered in the design of river structures and in determining water quality for biotic systems. Changes in sediment transport regimes are difficult to understand or predict due to the complexity of factors that influence sediment flux in fluvial systems. Relationships about sediment source, sinks and transport have long been studied and many of these relationships have been quantitatively and qualitatively defined. However, due to the scarcity of long-term sediment records it is often difficult to test these relationships. This study examines one of these long-term suspended sediment records for the Mississippi River at East Dubuque, Illinois from 1943 to 1996. Daily suspended sediment concentrations from the United States Army Corps of Engineers station at East Dubuque were analyzed for the spring and summer months (March - August). Sediment concentrations were analyzed in terms of average concentration during different hydrologic events at the large basin scale. These events included the spring snowmelt runoff (low and high magnitude) and different intensity storm runoff (low, moderate and high). Additionally, peak sediment concentrations during storm runoff were also analyzed. The general trend for all of these analyses suggests a significant decrease in sediment concentrations from the 1940s to the 1990s. The strongest trends are found in high magnitude snowmelt runoff and in high and moderate magnitude storm runoff. Peak concentrations in storm runoff have decreased from about 1000 ppm in the l940s to about 200 ppm in the 1990s. Average concentrations have likewise decreased from about 200 ppm in the 1940s to 100 ppm in the 1990s. Changes in land management practices are identified as being the primary environmental factor influencing sediment concentrations.

Geomorphic Approaches to Integrated Floodplain Management of Lowland Fluvial Systems in North America and Europe

Geomorphic Approaches to Integrated Floodplain Management of Lowland Fluvial Systems in North America and Europe
Author: Paul F. Hudson
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2015-04-29
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1493923803

This volume provides a comprehensive perspective on geomorphic approaches to management of lowland alluvial rivers in North America and Europe. Many lowland rivers have been heavily managed for flood control and navigation for decades or centuries, resulting in engineered channels and embanked floodplains with substantially altered sediment loads and geomorphic processes. Over the past decade, floodplain management of many lowland rivers has taken on new importance because of concerns about the potential for global environmental change to alter floodplain processes, necessitating revised management strategies that minimize flood risk while enhancing environmental attributes of floodplains influenced by local embankments and upstream dams. Recognition of the failure of old perspectives on river management and the need to enhance environmental sustainability has stimulated a new approach to river management. The manner that river restoration and integrated management are implemented, however, requires a case study approach that takes into account the impact of historic human impacts to the system, especially engineering. The river basins examined in this volume provide a representative coverage of the drainage of North America and Europe, taking into account a range of climatic and physiographic provinces. They include the 1) Sacramento (California, USA), 2) San Joaquin (California), 3) Missouri (Missouri, USA), 4) Red (Manitoba, Canada and Minnesota, USA), 5) Mississippi (Louisiana, USA), 6) Kissimmee (Florida, USA), 7) Ebro (Spain), 8) Rhone (France), 9) Rhine (Netherlands), 10) Danube (Romania), and 11) Volga (Russian Federation) Rivers. The case studies covered in these chapters span a range of fluvial modes of adjustment, including sediment, channel, hydrologic regime, floodplains, as well as ecosystem and environmental associations.

River to Reservoir

River to Reservoir
Author: P. Corbett
Publisher: Geological Society of London
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2019-12-02
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1786204312

This volume brings together a number of papers from two workshops with the theme, ‘Rain, Rivers, Reservoirs’, which considered the dynamic changes to river systems as part of natural processes, particularly changing climatic conditions. Bringing researchers from two different locations to Brazil and the UK allowed scientists to contribute to and promote, ‘debate on current research…on how the planet works and how we can live sustainably on it’. This volume features a series of papers on the geoscience of modern and ancient rivers from across the world (Brazil, United States, Spain, Argentina, Canada, India and the UK), their evolution through time, their management, their deposits and their engineering, with both subsurface aquifers/hydrocarbon reservoirs (of Carboniferous, Triassic and Cretaceous age) and surface reservoirs considered.

Morphodynamics of the Mississippi River

Morphodynamics of the Mississippi River
Author: Colin R. Thorne
Publisher:
Total Pages: 64
Release: 2001
Genre: Sediment transport
ISBN:

The Lower Mississippi River, extending from Cairo, Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico, annually transports approximately 170 million tonnes of sediment. Historically, the quantity and calibre of sediment derived from catchment erosion have been affected by changes in land-use and management. For example, soil erosion increased during the 19th and early 20th centuries due to settlement by Europeans and this may have elevated catchment sediment supply to the Mississippi River, while more recently the supply of sediment from tributaries is known to have decreased markedly as a result of river engineering and management. Specifically, the construction of large dams as part of the Mississippi River and Tributaries (MR & T) Project has trapped sediment that would otherwise have been supplied to the Mississippi, particularly by the Missouri River. Marked changes have also occurred in the extent of eroding bankline along the Mississippi and these must have reduced the input of sediment derived from this source. For example, during the last three decades, a sustained construction program of bank revetments and dikes has produced a stable alignment. Given these trends in sediment supply from catchment, tributary and bank sources, it is not surprising that most studies of sediment movement report a large decrease in measured sediment loads at selected monitoring stations along the Mississippi River over the last 50 years (Kesel, 1988; Dardeau and Causey, 1990). However, a case can be made that the bed material load must have increased since the 1940s. This argument is based on analysis of morphological changes observed along the river that have led to an overall increase in slope and available stream power, coupled with the fact that bed material sizes along the river have remained almost constant.

An Analysis of the Suspended Sediment Rating Curve Parameters in the Upper Mississippi River Basin at the Monthly and Annual Levels

An Analysis of the Suspended Sediment Rating Curve Parameters in the Upper Mississippi River Basin at the Monthly and Annual Levels
Author: Vi Thi Tuong Tran
Publisher:
Total Pages: 124
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN:

Suspended sediment rating curve parameters were analyzed to investigate the relationship of suspended load and discharge in the Upper Mississippi River Basin (UMRB) at the annual and monthly levels. The rating curve parameters were obtained from the power function of load and discharge: Load = a × (Discharge)b̳ [(Discharge)^b]. The function was solved by ordinary least squares regression on its logarithmic form. The annual rating coefficient a and exponent b ranged from 0 to 0.25 (kg/s)(s/m3)b̳ [(kg/s)(s/m^3)^b] and from 0.91 to 4.27, respectively. The monthly rating coefficient a and exponent b ranged from 0 to 0.239 (kg/s)(s/m3)b̳ and from 0.09 to 3.72, respectively. The intercept ln(a) and slope b of the logarithmic graph of suspended load and discharge were negatively correlated. This correlation was stronger for rivers categorized as having high discharge (> 218 m3/s [m^3/s]). This study also showed negative correlations between the rating coefficient a and stream discharge at annual and monthly levels, indicating that in large rivers, the rating curve tends to have a smaller intercept and larger slope. Smaller values of a and b in winter compared to other seasons suggested a low supply of sediment into streams due to frozen ground and the inactive state of streams in transporting sediment during winter months. The dominant shape of annual sediment rating curves in the region was convex, suggesting a transport-limited system for sediment transport in the basin. The transport-limited system indicates the potential of a flow to entrain additional sediment (possibly of larger grain sizes) during high discharge due to its higher competence. The apparent contradiction between the transport-limited condition and the findings of Meade and Moody (2010) is attributed to different approaches to the issue (trend of mean suspended load over time versus sediment rating curve). The results of this thesis also suggested that the UMRB has remained transport-limited after the flood in 1993, although this merits further investigation.