Publication

Recent Channel Incision and Floodplain Evolution within the Middle Rio Grande, NM

URL: https://webapps.usgs.gov/mrgescp/documents/Massongetal_2006_RecentChannelIncisionandFloodplainEvolutionwithintheMRGNM.pdf

Date: 2006/01/01

Author(s): Massong T.M., Tashjian P., Makar P.

Publication: Proceedings of the Eighth Federal Interagency Sedimentation Conference (8th FISC), April2-6, 2006, Reno, NV, USA

Abstract:

The Rio Grande was historically an aggrading river system with a wide, sandy, braided planform with an even more extensive floodplain/wetland system inundated during high flows (Scurlock 1998). Consecutive flooding of irrigated and inhabited lands prompted the Middle Rio Grande Project to create a series of large dams on the Rio Grande and its major tributaries (1950s-1970s) to control flooding and sedimentation (Lagasse 1980). Much of the Middle Rio Grande (MRG) today is no longer flooding and aggrading, but rather is evolving at a rapid rate in the opposite direction. For example, the active channel width, which has been decreasing since the 1930s, had a measurable decrease between the 2001-2002 data sets (Makar et al., 2006). The historical floodplain is in many places abandoned, with the formation of vegetated bars constituting the majority of flooded surfaces in these areas (Tashjian et al., 2006). As much of the floodplain became abandoned through degradation of the channel bed (a.k.a., incision), bank heights grew, but their growth has not appeared systematic as they change throughout the MRG (Klawon and Makar 2002, Massong et al. 2002, Ortiz 2004, and Massong 2005).