|
|
Much time and money has been spent over the last 40 years in the U.S. by farmers, soil scientists, hydrologists, geomorphologists, engineers, and ecologists attempting to document how agricultural best management practices, natural vegetation in riparian corridors, and stream rehabilitation or bank stabilization reduces sediment yields and improves ecological conditions at watershed outlets. These issues are especially pertinent in the steep erodible landscape of the Driftless Area in southwest Wisconsin, where many miles of world-class spring-fed trout streams remain on state impaired waters lists from excessive sedimentation and degraded habitat even though this area was the birthplace of the conservation movement...
|
The upper Illinois River Basin (UIRB) is the 10,949 square mile drainage area upstream from Ottawa, Illinois, on the Illinois River. The UIRB is one of 13 studies that began in 1996 as part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National WaterQuality Assessment program. A compilation of environmental data from Federal, State, and local agencies provides a description of the environmental setting of the UIRB. Environmental data include natural factors such as bedrock geology, physiography and surficial geology, soils, vegetation, climate, and ecoregions; and human factors such as land use, urbanization trends, and population change. Characterization of the environmental setting is useful for understanding the physical, chemical,...
|
In 2003 and 2004, 30 streams near Milwaukee and Green Bay, Wisconsin, were part of a national study by the U.S. Geological Survey to assess urbanization effects on physical, chemical, and biological characteristics along an agriculture-to-urban land-use gradient. A geographic information system was used to characterize natural landscape features that define the environmental setting and the degree of urbanization within each stream watershed. A combination of land cover, socioeconomic, and infrastructure variables were integrated into a multi-metric urban intensity index, scaled from 0 to 100, and assigned to each stream site to identify a gradient of urbanization within relatively homogeneous environmental settings....
|
|
