lets us see the mississipi
he,,,he...i first heard about the mississipi when i was little- when my beloved mother used to play tom sawyer cartoon for me. Rivers are cradles of civilization, for many reasons , it has drawn people towards it for diferent uses, the mississipi is one of the inland rivers whose potentials has been highly maximized for human use--- lets have a look!!
The Mississippi, reported to have gotten her name from the Ojibway Indians of northern Minnesota called it "Messipi" or "Big River," or gathering of waters is also known as the "Mee-zee-see-bee" or the "Father of Waters. It is one of the world biggest rivers in the heart of North America, with its source begins as a small clear creek from Lake Itasca in northwestern Minnesota North Woods and continues flowing through the midcontinental United States on a journey of 2,350 miles later empties into the Gulf of Mexico. It run and covers 1.2 million square miles and includes tributary rivers from 32 states in the US and two Canadian provinces.. It has an integrated facility viz, river basin, or watershed, extends from the Allegheny Mountains in the eastern United States to the Rocky Mountains it has diverse habitat and biological productivity. The river basin measures 4.76 million square kilometers, covering about 40% of the United States and about one-eighth of North America. Of the world's rivers, the Mississippi ranks third in length, second in watershed area, and fifth in average discharge.
The Mississippi is divided into two confluences:
The Upper Mississippi River - from Minneapolis-St. Paul to the confluence of the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois, flows nearly 900 miles, until it merges with the Illinois River and the Missouri River above St. Louis and joins the Ohio River at Cairo. Its depth is controlled by a series of locks and dams as it flows through scenic lakes, bluffs, marshes and islands southward to Alton, Illinois just north of St. Louis. Here, the Father of Waters, first explored by Marquette and Joliet, is relatively shallow and much wider than the lower river. The Mississippi River is then free flowing from near Alton, Illinois south to the Gulf of Mexico.
Lower Mississippi River - from Cairo to New Orleans, Louisiana. Cape Girardeau is 51 river miles north of the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. (30 miles as the crow flies), from its confluence with the Ohio, continues a journey that will end 1800 miles downstream in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. More than 50 rivers will have added to its width and depth. More than 10,000 years old, it was first discovered by DeSoto in 1541. By then it had already been named Mecha Seba, Great River, by the Chippewa Indians.
Characteristics:
Speed average surface: 1.2 miles per hour average headwaters - roughly one-third as fast as people walk.
Length: Estimated at 2300-2,552mile - River length is a difficult measurement to pin down because the river channel is constantly changing.
· Width: At Lake Itasca, the river is between 20-30 feet wide, the narrowest stretch for its entire length.The Mississippi is more than four miles wide at Lake Onalaska. Near LaCrosse, Wisconsin, Mississippi water held behind Lock and Dam #7 and water held back by damming the Black River combine to form this broad reach of the Mississippi River.
· Depth: At its headwaters, the Mississippi is less than 3 feet deep. The river's deepest section is between Governor Nicholls Wharf and Algiers Point in New Orleans where it is 200 feet deep.
· Elevation: The elevation at Lake Itasca is 1,475 feet above sea level. It drops to 0 feet above sea level at the Gulf of Mexico. More than half of that drop in elevation occurs within the state of Minnesota.
· Sediment Load: It carries an average of 436,000 tons of sediment each day. Over the course of a year, it moves an average of 159 million tons of sediment.
· Watershed Area: The Mississippi River Basin or Watershed drains 41% of continental United States. Thirty-one states and 2 Canadian provinces are included in the watershed. The total area drained by the watershed is between 1.2 and 1.8 million square miles.
· Water supply:
· 15 million communities, 50 cities up and down the river use the Mississippi to obtain fresh water and to discharge their industrial and municipal waste.
· Commerce: For nearly 200 years agriculture has been the primary user of the basin lands, continually altering the hydrologic cycle and energy budget of the region. The value of the agricultural products and the huge agribusiness industry that has developed in the basin produces 92% of the nation's agricultural exports, 78% of the world's exports in feed grains and soybeans, and most of the livestock and hogs produced nationally.
· Transportation: In measure of tonnage, the largest port in the world is located on the Mississippi River at LaPlace, La. Between the two of them, the Ports of New Orleans and South Louisiana shipped more than 286 millions tons of goods in 2001. Sixty percent of all grain exported from the US is shipped via the Mississippi River through the Port of New Orleans and the Port of South Louisiana. Shipping at the lower end of the Mississippi is focused on petroleum and petroleum products, iron and steel, grain, rubber, paper and wood, coffee, coal, chemicals, and edible oils.
Volume: At Lake Itasca, the average flow rate is 6 cubic feet per second.At Upper St. Anthony's Falls, the northernmost Lock and Dam, the average flow rate is 12,000 cubic ft/second.At New Orleans, the average flow rate is 600,000 cubic feet per second.
· Wildlife: The Mississippi River and its floodplain are home to a diverse population of living things:
-At least 260 species of fishes, 25% of all fish species in North America;
-Forty percent of the nation's migratory waterfowl use the river corridor during their Spring and Fall migration;
-Sixty percent of all North American birds (326 species) use the Mississippi -River Basin as their migratory flyway;
-From Cairo, Il, upstream to Lake Itasca, there are 38 documented species of mussel. On the Lower Mississippi, there may be as many as 60 separate species of mussels;
-The Upper Mississippi is host to more than 50 species of mammals;
-At least 145 species of amphibians and reptiles inhabit the Upper Mississippi River environs.
According to wickipedia this are the development of the 21 st century on Mississippi navigation improvement
Navigation
The barges and other vessels that make the Mississippi one of the great commercial waterways of the world require a clear channel. The task of maintaining a navigation channel is the responsibility of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which was established in 1866. Earlier projects began as early as 1829 to remove snags, close off secondary channels and excavate rocks and sandbars. In 1829, there were surveys of the two major obstacles on the upper Mississippi, the Des Moines Rapids and the Rock Island Rapids, where the river was shallow and the riverbed was rock. The Des Moines Rapids were about 11 miles (18 km) long and just above the mouth of the Des Moines River at Keokuk, Iowa. The Rock Island Rapids were between Rock Island and Moline, Illinois. Both rapids were considered virtually impassable.
On a side note, it is at this Quad Cities area of the Mississippi River that the river flows East to West as opposed to its normal course North to South.The Corps recommended excavation of a 5 foot (1.5 m) deep channel at the Des Moines Rapids, but work did not begin until after Lieutenant Robert E. Lee endorsed the project in 1837. The Corps later also began excavating the Rock Island Rapids. By 1866, it had become evident that excavation was impractical, and it was decided to build a canal around the Des Moines Rapids. The canal opened in 1877, but the Rock Island Rapids remained an obstacle.
In 1878, Congress authorized the Corps to establish a 4.5 foot (1.4 m) channel deep to be obtained by building wing dams which direct the river to a narrow channel causing it to cut a deeper channel, by closing secondary channels and by dredging. The channel project was complete when the Moline Lock, which bypassed the Rock Island Rapids, opened in 1907.
To improve navigation between St. Paul, Minnesota, and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, the Corps constructed several dams on lakes in the headwaters area, including Lake Winnibigoshish and Lake Pokegama. The dams, which were built beginning in the 1880s, stored spring run-off which was released during low water to help maintain channel depth.
In 1907, Congress authorized a 6 foot (1.8 m) deep channel project on the Mississippi, which was not complete when it was abandoned in the late 1920s in favor of the 9 foot (2.7 m) deep channel project.In 1913, construction was complete on a dam at Keokuk, Iowa, the first dam below St. Anthony Falls. Built by a private power company to generate electricity, the Keokuk dam was one of the largest hydro-electric plants in the world at the time. The dam also eliminated the Des Moines Rapids.
Lock No. 27 and the Chain of Rocks canal take traffic around this "chain of rocks", an exposure of bedrock in the river north of St. Louis. Lock and Dam No. 1 was completed in Minneapolis in 1917 and Lock and Dam No. 2 at Hastings, Minnesota, was completed in 1930.Prior to the 1927 flood, the Corps' primary strategy was to close off as many side channels as possible to increase the flow in the main river. It was thought that the river's velocity would scour off bottom sediments, deepening the river and decreasing the possibility of flooding. The 1927 flood proved this so wrong that communities threatened by the flood began to make their own levee breaks to relieve the tension of the rising river.
The Corps now actively creates floodways to divert periodic water surges into backwater channels and lakes. The main floodways are the Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway; the Morganza Floodway, which directs floodwaters down the Atchafalaya River; and the Bonnet Carré Spillway which directs water to Lake Pontchartrain. The Old River Control structure also serve as a major floodgates that can be opened to prevent flooding. Some of the pre-1927 strategy is still in use today; the Corps actively cuts the necks of horseshoe bends, allowing the water to move faster and reducing flood heights.
The Rivers and Harbors Act of 1930 authorized the 9-foot channel project, which called for a navigation channel 9 feet deep and 400 feet (120 m) wide to accommodate multiple-barge tows.[11][12] This was achieved by a series of locks and dams, and by dredging. Twenty-three new locks and dams were built on the upper Mississippi in the 1930s in addition to the three already in existence. Two new locks were built north of Lock and Dam No. 1 at Saint Anthony Falls in the 1960s, extending the head of navigation for commercial traffic several miles, but few barges go past the city of Saint Paul today.
Beginning in the 1970s, the Corps applied hydrology transport models to analyze flood flow and water quality of the Mississippi.Until the 1950s, there was no dam below Lock and Dam 26 at Alton, Illinois. Lock and Dam 27, which consists of a low-water dam and an 8.4 mile (13.5 km) long canal, was added in 1953 just below the confluence with the Missouri River, primarily to bypass a series of rock ledges at St. Louis. It also serves to protect the St. Louis city water intakes during times of low water.Dam 26 at Alton, Illinois, which had structural problems, was replaced by the Mel Price Lock and Dam in 1990. The original Lock and Dam 26 was demolished.
Flood
The Mississippi River, being one of the major rivers in North America, can be a danger to those who live or work near it. Flooding, especially in recent years, has become a major problem for many people living in the flood plains and business owners. Even levees are no guarantee of protection to cities or farmers; The Mississippi River has flooded many times. Records go back to 1844. See: Flood Stages at Cape Girardeau, Missouri Extremes: Highest Recorded Level, 48.49 Feet on August 8, 1993. Lowest Recorded Level, 0.6 Feet on January 15, 1909.
Getting ready for spring flooding along the riverfront in downtown Cape Girardeau was almost an annual spring ritual. . Merchants would just move their merchandise to higher levels in the warehouses along Water street. But after the 1943 flood, when the river reached it's second highest level in recorded history of 42.3 feet, things began to change. That year the muddy river extended its banks past Water street, past Main street, to the west side of Spanish street over two blocks away. After another similar flood in 1944 (40.7 feet) talk began about building a levee between the river and the railroad track to stop the great financial loss of business and damage to buildings from the higher spring floods.
Work did not begin on a flood control project until 1956. A concrete wall protecting the downtown area was completed in 1958, but the entire project wasn't completed until 1964 at a cost of $4 million dollars. The project, consisting of the concrete wall and earthen levees, extends 7,210 feet along the banks of the river. The concrete wall itself stretches some 4,000 feet and ranges from 6 feet tall to a high point of 16 feet.
A park now beautifies the riverfront from just north of the Broadway street floodgate to the Themis street floodgate. Two murals adorn the flood wall. On the river side of the wall, as a backdrop for the riverfront park, a 340-foot-long mural "Mississippi River Mural" chronicals the vigorous spirit of life on the Mississippi River. On the land side of the floodwall the "Missouri Wall of Fame Mural" features famous Missourians, encompasses 25 panels and is 500-feet-long.
The total flood protection system consist of two pumping stations, five gates and and six drainage structures. Cost of the U. S. Corps of Engineers project was shared by the federal government, downtown merchants and property owners.
http://www.rosecity.net/river/floods.html#floods#floods
Ecology
The Mississippi River and its adjacent forests and wetlands provide important habitat for fish and wildlife and include the largest continuous system of wetlands in North America. The river supports a diverse array of wetland, open-water, and floodplain habitats, including extensive habitats on national wildlife refuges. Yet human activities have greatly altered this river ecosystem. Most of the river and its floodplain (defined as the adjacent, generally flat surface that is periodically inundated by floodwaters overflowing the river's natural banks) have been extensively modified for commercial navigation and other human developments. Much of the watershed is intensively cultivated, and many tributaries deliver substantial amounts of sediment, nutrients, and pesticides into the river. Pollutants also enter the river from metropolitan and industrial areas.
My question:
Do you have river in your areas- what are the water front and water game activities it is being used for?
How about navigation purpose? At what capacity? what kind of boat
Id there any control regarding, noise, release of substance from boat.
What is the significant environmental initiative being implemented in the river in your areas?
Do river in your area going through environmental dispute?
What risk you envisage as per rivers in your areas? Do anticipate any solution to such risk
How about dredging , how often it is being dredge for maintenance
What are recent environmental problem and disaster in around your rivers?
References
^ a b Median of the 7,305 daily mean streamflows recorded by the USGS for the period 1978-1998.
^ Median of the 7,305 daily mean streamflows recorded by the USGS for the period 1978-1998 at Vicksburg. The discharge is probably even higher farther downstream at Natchez, but data for Natchez were not recorded. Farther downstream from Natchez, approximately 25 percent of the water discharge of the Mississippi is diverted into the Atchafalaya River, and further discharge is lost as the river becomes a delta in Louisiana.
^ Median of the 1,826 daily mean streamflows recorded by the USGS for the period 1978-1983 at Baton Rouge.
^ Lengths of major rivers. Water Science for Schools. U.S. Geological Survey (1990). Retrieved on 2006-07-15.
^ General Information about the Mississippi River. Mississippi National River and Recreation Area. National Park Service (2004). Retrieved on 2006-07-15.
^ Mississippi River. USGS: Status and trends of the nation's biological resources. Retrieved on 2006-04-27.
^ U.S. Waterway System Facts, December 2005 (PDF). USACE Navigation Data Center. Retrieved on 2006-04-27.
^ Americas Wetland: Resource Center [1]
^ Upper Mississippi River Campaign. National Audubon Society (2006). Retrieved on 2006-11-29.
^ Paddling the Mississippi River to Benefit the Audubon Society. Source to Sea: The Mississippi River Project. Source to Sea 2006 (2006). Retrieved on 2006-11-29.
^ The Mississippi and its Uses. Natural Resource Management Section, Rock Island Engineers. Retrieved on 2006-06-21.
^ Appendix E: Nine-foot navigation channel maintenance activities. National Park Service, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area Comprehensive Management Plan. Retrieved on 2006-06-21.
My question:
Do you have river in your areas- what are the water front and water game activities it is being used for?
How about navigation purpose? At what capacity? what kind of boat
Id there any control regarding, noise, release of substance from boat.
What is the significant environmental initiative being implemented in the river in your areas?
Do river in your area going through environmental dispute?
What risk you envisage as per rivers in your areas? Do anticipate any solution to such risk
How about dredging , how often it is being dredge for maintenance
What are recent environmental problem and disaster in around your rivers?
dokunsulaiman@yahoo.com
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