Partners
Denver Urban Drainage and Flood Control District, Wright Water Engineers, Big Dry Creek Watershed Assoc., and WEF
Key researchers
Rod Lammers
Project description
Lammers and his team developed a specialized modeling program that details how performing stormwater management and stream restoration activities would affect channel erosion when executed independently of each other, as well as the effects of coordinating those activities. Because streambanks add more sediment and pollutants when they erode to those already reaching waterways from runoff, the researchers focused on total pollutant loads as a measure of both practices. The team used their model to assess conditions in Big Dry Creek, a 280-km2 suburban watershed that has been severely affected by bank erosion near Denver. The model illustrated watershed-scale changes in channel elevation and width, determined the probability that a stream bank would collapse, and predicted pollutant-loading rates as far as 20 years in advance. This type of experiment would take years and incur considerable expense if attempted in the field, Lammers said.
Project goal
To assess conditions in Big Dry Creek, a 280-km2 suburban watershed that has been severely affected by bank erosion near Denver
Project status/outcomes
Complete