This report on the 1993 flood on the Mississippi River in
Illinois and on the lower reaches of the Illinois River was
prepared by the Illinois State Water Survey with assistance from
the Illinois Department of Transportation/Division of Water
Resources and the Illinois Natural History Survey. The report
begins with a brief description of the physical setting of the
Upper Mississippi River System, including historical facts on
climate, precipitation, hydrology, and floods. The 1993 flood is
discussed with regard to precipitation, soil moisture, stages,
flows, levee breaches, and discharge through levee breaches.
Also discussed are impacts of the flood on social, economic,
hydraulic and hydrologic, and environmental aspects of the river
and its residents. Impacts on water quality, the environment,
and public water supplies, including the beneficial and
detrimental aspects of the flood, are also included. The lessons
learned from this flood focus on the performance of the levees,
governmental responses, information dissemination to the public
on the effects of flood fighting, change in stages due to levee
breaches, flood modeling, and the lack of information
dissemination to the public on the technical aspects of the
flood. These lessons point out information gaps and the need for
research in the areas of hydraulics and hydrology, meteorology,
sediment transport and sedimentation, surface and ground-water
interactions, water quality, and levees. The report presents a
comprehensive summary of the 1993 flood as far as climate,
hydrology, and hydraulics are concerned.
