Recovering and Updating Luna Leopold’s Watts Branch Survey
Imanthie Bandara
5 Smooth Stones Restoration
Livermore, Colorado
Authors: - David Bidelspach (RiverSHARED.org), Imanthie Bandara (5SSR, PLLC)
The renowned fluvial geomorphologist, Dr. Luna Leopold, had the foresight to study the Watts Branch watershed near Rockville, Maryland in an attempt to establish a database from which to track and analyze changes in small headwater stream channels. Dr. Leopold observed geomorphic effects of the watershed for 41 years from 1953.At the outset, Leopold believed that the results of his work would be of interest to the generation of his grandchildren. He quickly realized, however, that the changes he observed occurred far more rapidly than he had expected (Leopold, 1973).
The concepts developed and presented in the research paper “Geomorphic effects of urbanization in 41 years of observation publish in 2005 by Leopold et al is used as a basis for the basic concepts of river restoration design work to date like development of regional curves, attempt to understand the behavior of a river, identifying reference reaches, etc.
Repetitive observations in response to the perceived need for improved knowledge of geomorphic and hydrologic changes through time have resulted in many useful findings, and our desire is to analyze and present the survey data analysis of watts Branch done in October 2023 to update the information on geomorphic effects of urbanization at a time period of 70 years.
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