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Hydrogeomorphic Units and Catena Linkages for the Upper Mississippi River System

In 2020 the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), as part of the Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) Program, began a project to characterize potential hydrogeomorphic change associated with hydrogeomorphic units (HGUs) and their catenae (units linked by their association with sediment sources and flow origins). The objective of the project was to develop a geographic information system (GIS) database of HGUs for the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) available to both scientists and river managers working on UMRR studies and Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Project (HREP) planning and design studies. Resulting data products, beginning with a pilot implementation in Navigation Pool 10, are contained in this ScienceBase data release. The HGU characterization was based on a hydrogeomorphic change hierarchical classification developed previously for the UMRS. The mapping products were generated with automated techniques in a GIS, with the use of systemic datasets. Landforms were mapped from the 2015 UMRS topobathymetric dataset with geomorphon (shape-based) tools tailored for the large riverscape, valley bottom environments in the UMRS. The resulting landforms were attributed with characteristics quantifying their hydrologic setting and connectivity, inundation regime, morphometry, proximity to anthropogenic structures, wave erosion potential, proximity to flow and sediment sources, and history of depositional planform change. A clustering analysis was applied to the landforms to identify HGUs associated with zones of perennial low flows, bankfull flows, and overbank floodplains. Catenae were assembled based on least-cost flowpath linkages originating from potential sediment origins within the main channel, side channels, and tributary mouths defined from previously published aquatic areas (USACE, 2018), and terminating at planform change units developed by Rogala, Fitzpatrick, and Henderson (2020).

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Author(s) Angus A Vaughan orcid, Faith A Fitzpatrick orcid, Jayme M Strange orcid, Molly Van Appledorn orcid
Publication Date 2025-08-28
Beginning Date of Data 1996
Ending Date of Data 2010
Data Contact
DOI https://doi.org/10.5066/P14BFCUP
Citation Vaughan, A.A., Fitzpatrick, F.A., Strange, J.M., and Appledorn, M.V., 2025, Hydrogeomorphic Units and Catena Linkages for the Upper Mississippi River System: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P14BFCUP.
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Metadata Date 2025-08-28
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License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
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Harvest Source: ScienceBase
Harvest Date: 2025-09-03T05:06:04.692Z