Honors Program Theses

Award/Availability

Open Access Honors Program Thesis

First Advisor

James Walters

Keywords

Soil erosion--Iowa--Cedar Falls--Prevention; Best management practices (Pollution prevention)--Iowa--Dry Run Creek (Black Hawk County);

Abstract

Dry Run Creek is a watershed located in Cedar Falls; Iowa and it is on a list of the state's impaired waterways. One reason it may be impaired is that there is excessive erosion in the stream. This study assessed the Bank Erosion Hazard Index of portions of the creek to determine erosion hotspots. The majority of the banks in all the branches had a Low score, meaning that the BEHI was less than 11.9. The minimum BEHI score is O and the maximum score is 40. The lower the score, the better the condition of the bank. Portions of the University, East, and West branches of Dry Run Creek were studied. All assessed stretches in the West Branch were found to have a Low BEHI rating, indicating that they are in good condition and are in little danger of erosion. The highest BEHI found in the West Branch was 10.3, putting all of the stretches in the Low category. Stretches of the stream with a Moderate or High BEHI rating were found in the University and East Branches. Most of these scores were well above 15. These areas could be considered areas with high erosion potential that should be monitored and treated with measures to prevent erosion.

Year of Submission

2013

Department

Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences

University Honors Designation

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation University Honors

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

5-2013

Object Description

1 PDF file (44 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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