Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Effects Of Flow Augmentation On Channel Morphology And Riparian Vegetation In The Upper Arkansas River Basin, Colorado, Dewitt S. Dominick

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined historic change of riparian plant communities and fluvial geomorphic response of gravel-bedded streams and their floodplains to over 50 years of hydrologic disturbance. Four tributary basins of the Arkansas River were analyzed. Lake Creek, Clear Creek, and Cottonwood Creek are drainages similar in area, physiography, and vegetation composition. However, Lake Creek may receive an instantaneous discharge of approximately 28 m3sec^-1 from the Twin Lakes tunnel, over three times the normal flow of the stream during spring runoff. By contrast, Clear Creek and Cottonwood Creek, nonaugmented streams, were used as controls to compare the historic and present …