Managing Mississippi and Ohio River Landscapes

Managing Mississippi and Ohio River Landscapes

2016

Two powerful rivers, the Ohio and Mississippi, and their tributaries drain more than 41% of the interior continental United States. Their shifting paths have shaped and reshaped the landscapes through which they flow and the confluences where their sediment-laden waters co-mingle on the voyage to the Gulf of Mexico. Changing climates and extreme weather events over the millennia have carved new channels through river bottomlands, leaving rock-exposed uplands and fertile valleys behind while altering the location where the Ohio and Mississippi rivers meet. Since the great rivers often become state boundaries, their historic realignment has added or subtracted land from many states which border them. For much of their history, the lands adjacent to these rivers were low-lying bottomlands that flood with the seasons unconstrained by human structures. However, in the last century these rivers have become agricultural economic engines as humans reengineered the rivers and their bottomlands with extensive systems of levees, locks and dams, floodwalls, and reservoirs. Through a series of engaging case studies accompanied by illustrative maps and photographs, the authors examine the complex and ever-changing Mississippi and Ohio rivers’ landscapes and their systems; review historical impacts of climate, economic and population growth, and efforts to manage river landscapes with engineered structures; and make recommendations on future management to protect soil and water resources and facilitate social, economic, and ecosystem balance. This book serves as a powerful resource for private and public landowners and managers, soil scientists, conservationists, sociologists, wetland specialists, hydrologists, geologists, and those interested in the future of our river landscapes.

Olson, Kenneth R.
Morton, Lois Wright

Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana NRES https://nres.illinois.edu/
Department of Sociology, Iowa State University https://soc.iastate.edu/

Soil and Water Conservation Society

Soil and Water Conservation Society (Ankeny, Iowa)

240

Water Restoration & Protection
Hydrology

Engineered structure
River system
River Landscape

Ohio River
Mississippi River

2010-2019

No

https://www.swcs.org/resources/publications/books/managing-mississippi-a...

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Soil and Water Conservation Society