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Chapter 1. Management of Mississippi and Ohio River Landscapes

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Chapter 1. Management of Mississippi and Ohio River Landscapes Management of Mississippi and Ohio River Landscapes wo powerful rivers, these rivers for1 navigation Tthe Ohio and Missis- and to protect communities, sippi, and their tributaries agriculture, and other high- drain more than 41% of the value land uses. Alongside attempts interior continental United States to control the height and courses of of America (map 1.1). Their shifting these rivers and their tributaries, diversion paths have shaped and reshaped the landscapes ditches and systematic draining of interior swamps through which they flow and the confluence (map 1.2) and wetlands have transformed hydric but fertile soils where their sediment-laden waters comingle on the into highly productive, intensely managed agricultural voyage to the Gulf of Mexico. Changing climates and lands. Paradoxically, these infrastructure investments, extreme weather events over the millennia have carved intended to facilitate navigation and reduce direct risks new channels through river bottomlands, leaving rock- of flooding, have led to unexpected consequences to exposed uplands and fertile valleys behind while altering the larger ecosystem. Recent levee breaching has cre- the location where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers meet. ated unanticipated shocks to the river ecosystem while These great rivers often became state boundaries, and generating new knowledge about hydrology, soils, and their historic realignments have added and subtracted the vegetation of rivers and their bottomlands. The oc- land from many states that border them. For much of casional failure of well-engineered structures reminds their history, the lands adjacent to these rivers were low- us that the river landscape is a complex human-natural lying bottomlands that, unconstrained by human struc- system. This complex system is dynamic, ever chang- tures, flooded with the seasons. ing, and often managed based on assumptions of steady However, in the last century these rivers—high- state—expectations that the past predicts the future. ways of trade, settlement, and adventure—have become These assumptions do not well prepare communities agricultural economic engines as humans reengineered to deal with diverse and often competing societal goals the rivers and their bottomlands. Locks and dams, under an increasingly variable climate, increasing levees and floodwalls, aqueducts, and an extensive populations, and intensified land uses [1, 2]. system of reservoirs have been constructed to manage (c) SWCS. For Individual Use Only 1 Missouri River Platte Mississippi River River Ohio Arkansas River River Missouri River Legend Mississippi River basin Land not draining into Mississippi River Mississippi 200 mi River N MAP 1.1 The location of the Mississippi and Ohio river basins, which occupy 41% of the continental United States. The Great Flood of 2011 and drought of 2012 [3] tomlands, which historically served as outlets to rivers well illustrate some of the vulnerabilities and unin- under flood conditions. tended consequences that arise from designing and The 2011 induced levee breaching of the Birds managing river systems without taking into account Point–New Madrid Floodway reaffirmed the effective- their changing nature and the need for more flexible- ness of dispersion management and its capacity to pro- adaptive capacities [1, 4, 5]. Following the Great Flood tect the integrity of communities and land uses along of 1927, it became apparent that the extensive use of the larger river system. However, many homeowners levees, channelization, and confinement of the rivers and landowners were unprepared for the consequences was inadequate to effectively contain these great rivers of opening the floodway. With the reemergence of [6]. The subsequent addition of reservoirs upstream social tensions and competing social values for the of the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers at uses of river bottomlands, public policy makers, com- Cairo, Illinois, and four downstream floodways below munity leaders, environmental advocates, and govern- Cairo was a substantive shift by the US Army Corps ment agencies are challenged to reassess the impacts of of Engineers (USACE) to strategically incorporate a leveed structures that in recent history have protected dispersion risk management strategy with confinement urban and rural agricultural land uses. Although most engineering [6, 7]. The underlying premise of dispersion river flooding has repetitive patterns that reoccur is to replicate the natural floodplain functions of bot- seasonally and over periods of years presenting known risks, floods are complicated in their range of intensity 2 (c) SWCS. For Individual Use Only Legend Railroad bridge Ohio floodwater on N May 8, 2011 0.6 mi Ohio Mississippi floodwater River Ohio River on May 8, 2011 3 floodwater Cairo, Illinois Ohio River Kentucky Upland Cairo, Illinois 51 Missouri levee- Road protected bottomland bridge Confluence Birds Point–New Mississippi River of Ohio and Madrid Floodway floodwater Mississippi Lower Angelo 60 Rivers Mississippi Ohio and Mississippi Towhead Kentucky riverbank Road Upland Bridge Upper bridge Mississippi Earthen levee River Levee Floodwall Birds Point–New Missouri levee Levee Madrid Floodway protected bottomland 60 breach Railroad MAP 1.2 The confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers during the flood of 2011. The sediment in the Mississippi has a much darker color reflecting the soil organic–rich sediment. and duration and can result in unexpected consequenc- to politically acceptable agreement on management and es [8]. Levee breaching and other structural failures are land use decisions. often the result of unusually large runoff in a system cut off from its historical floodplain. Science is just Early Attempts to Manage the beginning to understand the relationship between the Mississippi and Ohio River Landscapes river and its floodplain, the beneficial aspects of flood- The first recorded attempt to manage the Mississippi ing, and the roles of wetlands and riparian corridors and Ohio river landscapes occurred in 1717. New Or- as well as the extensive social and economic damage leans, a deep water port, was established by the French floods wreak on the livelihoods of those along the river. on the Mississippi River about 50 miles from the cur- There is evidence that a new type of river man- rent Gulf of Mexico. The original settlement was 14 city agement is needed, one that goes beyond the current blocks with drainage ditches around each block; these confinement-dispersion strategy. Park et al. call for ditches were the first recorded attempt to manage the resilience management [1], an adaptive management landscape. The first levee along the banks of the Missis- approach to changing conditions that preserves the sippi River was allegedly erected in 1718, but this date natural functions of the river ecosystem in ways that has not been confirmed. Documented levees were built minimize catastrophic failure of engineered structures. in 1722 by the French. The levees constructed in 1722 This concept is just emerging, and there remain many were four-foot-high earthen levees, which began a 300- practical details to work out. Some of these details year struggle to combat high water with embankments. involve better inventories and assessments of the soil The levees were privately maintained by area land- resource immediately after levee breaches and sub- owners, who used slaves, state prisoners, and poverty- sequent flood events. Updated soil surveys and land stricken Irish immigrants to perform the deadly work. scouring and deposition surveys can be used to create Situated on land with poorly drained soils and unfavor- a better understanding of the ecosystem services the able topography, the New Orleans settlement was prone floodplain provides and guide restoration decisions to periodic flooding by the Mississippi River. The city when engaging and informing the public so as to come was a few feet above the sea on the deltaic floodplain (c) SWCS. For Individual Use Only 3 of the Mississippi River, which was settling at a rate of port to the opposite end of the falls, where they were between 2 and 10 feet per century. picked up by another steamboat. Early US attempts to manage Mississippi and The General Survey Act of 1824 authorized the use Ohio rivers can be tracked back to June 16, 1775, or of army engineers to survey roads and canal routes. In shortly before the United States was established. 1824 Congress also passed a river improvement act to The Continental Congress organized General George promote navigation on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers Washington’s army with a chief engineer, Colonel and to remove sandbars on the Ohio and sawyers (fallen Richard Gridley. The USACE, as it is known today, was trees stuck on the bottom of a river) and snags on the established by President Thomas Jefferson in 1779. Mississippi River. The act, often called the first rivers In 1803, the United States acquired New Orleans and and harbors legislation, combined authorizations for 828,000 square miles mostly located in the Missis- both surveys and projects. In 1825, construction began sippi River valley from the French. The land transfer on a canal to bypass the Falls of the Ohio, and by 1830 became known as the Louisiana Purchase (map 1.3) at the privately financed Louisville and Portland Canal was the cost of $15 million. By 1811, steamboats started to completed. The canal was constructed by hand tools arrive in New Orleans. When Lewis and Clark headed and animal-drawn scrappers and carts. When complet- down the Ohio River in 1803, the water depth was very ed, the two-mile-long canal had three locking chambers low. It was a dry year, and navigation was a challenge with a total lift of 26 feet. Increasing steamboat trade on since locks and dams had not yet been built. The major the Cumberland River by 1825 led Congress to survey navigation problem that delayed steamboat travel on the river and finance river improvements to transport the Ohio River was the Falls of the Ohio River near eastern Kentucky coal, Tennessee produce, and lumber Louisville, Kentucky.
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