High-Flow Diversion Strategies for Effective Floodplain Reconnection

Robert Stewart, PE
Naturion
Johnson City, TN

Multiple flow paths provide important geomorphic complexities to floodplains by creating areas of refuge during high flows, localized scour and deposition, and diverse microhabitats for biota (Ward et al., 2002). These channels are of high geomorphic value and, because of industrialization, agricultural expansion, and urban development, many of these systems have been converted to single-thread meandering channels (Walter & Merritts, 2008). In the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, many of these lowland anastomosed systems have been impacted by mill dams, mining, channel straightening and tile drainage. In recent years, Naturion has aimed to restore these systems, where appropriate, using two-dimensional hydraulic modeling to identify areas prone to inherent scour. This presentation illustrates a conceptual model of split flows, provides natural examples, and discusses case studies.

About Robert Stewart, PE

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