Morphologic and Hydraulic Adjustments of Red River from Shreveport, LA to Fulton, AK, between 1886 and 1980

Harvey, Michael D.; Pranger, H. S.; Biedenharn, D. S.; Combs, P.; ,

Morphologic and Hydraulic Adjustments of Red River from Shreveport, LA to Fulton, AK, between 1886 and 1980

by Michael D. Harvey, Water Engineering & Technology, Inc, United States,
H. S. Pranger, II, Water Engineering & Technology, Inc, United States,
D. S. Biedenharn, Water Engineering & Technology, Inc, United States,
P. Combs, Water Engineering & Technology, Inc, United States,

Document Type: Proceeding Paper

Part of: Soil Properties Evaluation from Centrifugal Models and Field Performance

Abstract:

Morphometric data (channel width and depth and slope) from 4 hydrographic surveys of Red River (1886, 1938, 1968, 1980) from Shreveport to Fulton and specific-gage analyses for the gages at Shreveport and Alexandria were used to quantify the effects of removal of the Great Raft in 1873 on sediment transport capacity and sediment delivery to the downstream navigation reach, which has had an unexpectedly high maintenance dredging requirement. Confinement of flows to a single channel following Raft removal caused channel width to increase by a factor of 2.7, and cutoffs increased channel slope by a factor of 1.5. In combination they caused sediment transport capacity to increase by a factor of about 6. Channel erosion removed considerable sediment from floodplain storage, which was delivered to the navigation reach.

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