River Sedimentation Information Database Stewardship

Project ID: 8961
Principal Investigator: Joel Murray
Research Topic: Sediment Management and River Restoration
Funded Fiscal Years: 2016
Keywords: None

Research Question

Through data stewardship, can we improve the management of Reclamation river sedimentation information with
integration into a river sedimentation database?
Reclamation river survey data is available by request; however, the data are stored in numerous locations and in
disparate formats. Likewise, a percentage of Reclamation river surveys are found to have data entry errors.
As part of their studies to evaluate facility vulnerability as a result of climate change, the Army Corps of Engineers
has developed a more powerful, adaptable, and updatable Reservoir Sedimentation Information (RSI) database. It
may be possible to modify the RSI database to more effectively store and manage Reclamation river sedimentation
data.

Need and Benefit

River sedimentation data are imperative for water quality, habitat restoration and general river restoration
studies. Thus, developing and integrating Reclamation river sediment information into a standardized database is
key to improving data quality and data access. An easily usable and updatable river sediment information
database will benefit scientists, engineers, and natural resource managers and planners in understanding the
relative impacts of river sedimentation, both temporally and spatially, on the aforementioned river studies.
Development of this proposal was completed in conjunction with the development of the 'Reservoir Sedimentation
Information Database Stewardship' (Project ID:8988) proposal. This work is complimentary to the
above-mentioned proposal and will result in a connate and standardized database for both river and reservoir
survey information.

Contributing Partners

Contact the Principal Investigator for information about partners.

Research Products

Bureau of Reclamation Review

The following documents were reviewed by experts in fields relating to this project's study and findings. The results were determined to be achieved using valid means.

River Sedimentation Information Database Stewardship (final, PDF, 901KB)
By Joel Murray
Publication completed on September 30, 2016

River sedimentation data are imperative for water quality, habitat restoration and general river restoration studies. Thus, developing and integrating Reclamation river sediment information into a standardized database is key to improving data quality and data access. An Access database was developed to store this information which will eventually be moved to the USACE Reservoir Sediment Information (RSI) database when the architecture is enhanced to accept river sedimentation data.

Final Report and Datasets for North Fork Gunnison (final, PDF, 9.8MB)
By Joel Murray
Publication completed on September 30, 2016

The final report and datasets summarize the research results and potential application to Reclamation's mission.

Final Report and Datasets for Middle Rio Grande (final, PDF, 8.0MB)
By Joel Murray
Publication completed on September 30, 2016

The final report and datasets summarize the research results and potential application to Reclamation's mission.

Final Report and Datasets for Catherine Creek (final, PDF, 28.1MB)
By Joel Murray
Publication completed on September 30, 2016

The final report and datasets summarize the research results and potential application to Reclamation's mission.

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Last Updated: 6/22/20