River Management Case Study on The Mississippi.

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Assignment 5 – River Management Case Study

For a named river basin

  1. outline the ways in which this river has been managed by man
  2. explain the effects this has had upon the rivers features and processes. 

The River Mississippi:

The Mississippi along with the Colorado is one of the most managed rivers in the world. It is one of the longest rivers in the world as it stretches 3800km across North America from Canada to the Atlantic Ocean. Along this very long stretch much management has taken place. Even though the management of the river isn’t as great as the Colorado its importance economically is much greater.

The watershed of the Mississippi occupies 41% of the USA so its importance is huge. Flooding of the Mississippi would mean huge economic and environmental damage so there is great necessity to manage it to a great degree. The river is used for navigation to export 60% of all grain in the USA. Many large cities rely on the Mississippi for their water supply. But the use of the river for water has bad effects. There is great risk of flooding in these cities, a bit of a double edge sword. The worst of this flooding was in 1993.

The Mississippi has been adapted and managed much throughout history and has accounted for the growth of major cities along its path. The Mississippi is very unique as the management is present all along its 3800km path, which for a river of that size is very rare. The majority of the management is for protection. There are many settlements along the course of the river that need protection, as the Mississippi is a very dangerous river when flooding. When settlement began to grow people we attracted to the fertile flood plains of the Mississippi so along its course many densely pack settlements began to grow. But they were unaware of the dangers of the Mississippi flooding. The two most commonly seen management structures seen along the river are reservoirs and levees.

Flood control reservoirs are built well upstream of the river, there are over 20 large reservoirs. These were created in areas of tributaries that were likely to flood. The procedure was that during heavy rain the water would be diverted into the reservoir to prevent flooding of the area. This way no damage is done to the settlement of surrounding areas.

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As you can see from the above diagram without the reservoir removing the threat of flooding an example of a nearby settlement would be at great risk. The diversion of the floodwater helps prevent the flooding from occurring. This type of defence is most present towards the beginning of the Mississippi as this can only deal with small-scale base level increases. But the use of reservoirs isn’t terribly cost effective as the reservoirs face major risk of silting up. Using the Hjulstrom curve to back up this theory ...

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