Title:
Evaluation of the Long-term Impacts of Urbanization on the Physical Characteristics of Piedmont Headwater Streams: Interim Results
Evaluation of the Long-term Impacts of Urbanization on the Physical Characteristics of Piedmont Headwater Streams: Interim Results
Author(s)
Mikalsen, Ted
Bourne, Robert L.
Sukenick, Adam
Bourne, Robert L.
Sukenick, Adam
Advisor(s)
Editor(s)
Hatcher, Kathryn J.
Collections
Supplementary to
Permanent Link
Abstract
As reported in the 1999 Conference
Proceedings (Bourne and Mikalsen, 1999), a field study
was initiated in 1996 to evaluate the response of a
segment of Proctor Creek in Cobb County to the impact of rapid urbanization in the watershed over time and in
comparison to a segment of a physically comparable
but almost fully developed urban watershed. The
objectives of the study are to measure and evaluate
long-term changes in channel cross-sections, bank and
channel scouring, streambed composition, longitudinal
reach profiles, plan-form dimensions, biological
habitats and communities, water chemistry, and land cover to determine the timing and response of the
stream to urbanization within the watershed and
compare them with corresponding measurements of the developed urban watershed.
These interim results describe measured and
observed changes in the Proctor Creek study reach.
Since the onset of physical observations in 1996, when
increased sedimentation was the only evident indication of increased upstream development in the study reach,
there has been a decline in the diversity of the
macroinvertebrate community, enlargement of channel
cross-sections and extensive bank undercutting and
cantilever failure in the lower portion of the reach,
scouring and undercutting of an outside bank and
downstream migration of a cobble deposit in the middle
section, and scouring of root-armored banks in the upper portion of the reach, and extensive silt and
sediment deposition over the entire reach.
Sponsor
Sponsored and Organized by: U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Natural Resources Conservation Service, The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology
Date Issued
2001-03
Extent
Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Proceedings