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Site Six-Urban Jordan River
Figure 6.1 Google Earth Screenshot
Methods
I used Google Earth to help determine the boundaries of the river area, active floodplain, valley bottom margin, confinement and constriction. The elevation/terrain pictures came from Google Earth. I used data from the Riverscapes Warehouse, specifically the TauDEM, Channel Area, and Riverscapes Context to estimate the valley bottom and active floodplain. I have included a screenshot of the Height Above Nearest Drainage (Hand). I am also familiar with this area and I am using previous experiences to help determine all of the areas.
I used Google Earth Pro to create a polygon of the river length, river area, active floodplain, valley bottom margin, confinement, and constricted. In many cases I had to create multiple polygons to encompass the whole intended area and in this case I made sure to add them all up for the combined total. All the cells in blue are the raw calculations and everything else are calculated numbers. For the confined and constricted percentage I did an educated guess. For the rivers width I used an integrated width method. Which is calculated by the river length divided by the river area. I used the integrated measurement because the river's width changes throughout the whole reach and it would be more accurate than taking an average of multiple width measurements in different places.
Confined: 5%
Constricted: 1%
Sinuosity: 1,772 / 1,438 = 1.23
Slope: (1,362m - 1355m / 1438) * 100 = .49%
River Width: 19,633 / 1,772 = 11.1 meters
The percentage of Valley Bottom Channel to River Area.
(19,633 / 449,726) * 100 = 4.37 %
The percentage of Valley Bottom Channel in the Active Flood Plain
0 %
The percentage of Valley Bottom Channel in the Inactive Floodplain
100%
Figure 6.2 Calculations done in Excel using polygon results in Google Earth. Blue cells are raw data and white cells are calculated numbers.
Figure 6.3 Blue: River Channel/Area, Green: Active Floodplain, Orange: Inactive Floodplain, Red: Confining Areas
Figure 6.4 Riverscapes Warehouse HAND Data and Legend
This site is located near Utah Lake and in this particular location is where there is a dam or water regulation that splits the Jordan River in three separate streams (Figure 6.5). I focused on the middle stream with the vegetation area. Normally the Jordan River would be able to meander through this area and there are reminiscent of old channels but the Jordan River is so entrenched in that area that the river is not moving. When there is light flow sometimes the Jordan can spill into the older channels but it is not current creating new ones. The Asphalt Materials Inc Bluffdale Gravel Pit is also right next to this reach and I bet there is a lot of unintentional sediment entering the Jordan River.
Figure 6.5
Instream and Floodplain Geomorphic Units
Figure 6.6 On the right you can see there is a stream that is very turbid entering the Jordan River from the Gravel Pit. For Instream Geomorphic Units there are two longitudinal bars and runs. For Floodplain Geomorphic Units there are chute cut-offs and some Pool and Riffle Sequence.
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