- A stream originates at an elevation of 10,300 feet and flows to the ocean. The stream flows along a path that is 1,300 miles long. What is the average gradient of this stream? What will it become if sea level falls 500 feet and the stream’s path shortens to 1,150 miles long? What could have produced the stream length decrease with a fall in sea level? How might this affect residents living on the floodplain and on the delta?
- Describe the components of a stream’s load. How is each transported? What are the environmental implications of an increase in velocity, a decrease in velocity, or an increase in discharge?
- As an environmental geologist, you have been hired (at a salary of $95,283) by the Meander City planning commission to devise a development and response plan that takes into account the probability of flood hazard. Meander City is a growing manufacturing community of 40,000 residents, situated on the floodplain of an eastern tributary to the Mississippi River. (Refer to the diagram below.) Currently, neither flood mitigation nor erosion control has been implemented. The city occupies the center of a meander loop (is surrounded on three sides by river) and has numerous local parks around oxbow lakes. The leaders have budgeted $250,000 per year for flood control and management, not including salaries. Your study of Meander City’s situation is complete. Write a convincing proposal letter to the planners of Meander City, describing three options for flood control and two options for flood response, ranking the options in the order that you deem most effective and explaining why.
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