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Highlights some practical applications for art and river education to encourage teachers to create such programs. Describes the "Art and River" Program that consists of four half-day lessons at a river park. Discusses the importance of rivers and Native American beliefs about the land and rivers. Lists additional resources. (CMK)

Describes River Watch, an award-winning floating river study project that gives students continuous contact with the river environment. (PVD)

Explores the Columbia River Basin, its ecosystems, and challenges faced by natural resource managers. By studying the basin's complexity, students can learn about common scientific concepts such as the power of water and effects of rain shadows. Students can also explore social-scientific issues such as conflicts between protecting salmon runs and providing electricity through hydropower. Includes classroom activity guide and poster. (PVD)

Introduces a teaching strategy for Year 10 and senior biology students to demonstrate food and energy processes along a river ecosystem. In studying the River Continuum Concept, groups of students undertake a series of interrelated projects as a means of understanding the big picture of the food and energy interrelationships evident in healthy functioning ecosystems. Also includes sample hypotheses and support materials. (PVD)

Discusses the hydrodynamic reasons why a riverbed meanders through a plain. Describes how water movement at a bend in a river causes erosion and changes in the riverbed. Provides a mathematical model to explain the periodic shape of meanders of a river in a plain. (MDH)

An assessment of the water quality of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon was made, using the following parameters: dissolved oxygen, water temperature, hydrogen ion concentration, total dissolved solids, turbidity, and ammonium/nitrogen levels. These parameters were used to provide some clue as to the "wellness" and stability of the aquatic ecosystem. (KR)

The following indices for assessing river water quality are described: Shannon-Weiner Diversity Index, Sorenson Quotient of Similarity, Czekanowski's Index of Similarity, Trent Biotic Index, Chandler Score, and Biological Monitoring Working Party Score. Their advantages and disadvantages are outlined. (Author)

Describes Ohio's Scenic Rivers Monitoring Program that uses benthic macroinvertebrates, such as the stonefly, mayfly, and water penny beetle larva, as key indicators of water quality and stream health. Presents a three-category scheme for invertebrates based upon their tolerance to pollution. Students can collect samples of these organisms, calculate their numbers, and estimate the health of a stream. (PR)

Presented is a survey of a river including physiochemical measurements and river fauna observations. It is shown that the self-purification gradient of river water quality and the possible ecological disturbances due to pollutants entering the river create an unpredictable pattern of recovery. (CW)

Describes a summer program project designed and conducted by a mixed-age group of elementary children. Students collected data to determine whether a local stream was polluted, and interpretations of the data varied. An informational video about the project and the creek was produced. (PVD)

Introduces networking projects for studying rivers and water quality. Describes two projects in South Africa (Project W.A.T.E.R and SWAP) associated with the international network, Global Rivers Environmental Education Network. Discusses water test kits and educational material developed through Project W.A.T.E.R. (Water Awareness through Educational Response) available for community and school water quality projects. (MCO)

Author describes an individual research project involving digital modeling of graded river profiles as part of a sophomore-level geomorphology class. The three-week project gives students the opportunity to choose research topics, design experiments to test ideas, interpret results, and write a research report. (PR)

Reviews two documentaries produced by the U.S. government: "The Plow That Broke the Plains" (1936) and "The River" (1937). The first examines soil erosion in the Great Plains; the second considers Mississippi River usage. Narrates storylines and explains initial film criticism. Highlights the films' effectiveness for teaching about the New Deal and roots of environmentalism. (CH)

Describes a unit on river pollution and analytical methods to use in assessing temperature, pH, flow, calcium, chloride, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, dissolved nitrogen, detergents, heavy metals, sewage pollution, conductivity, and sediment cores. Suggests tests to be carried out and discusses significance of results. (JM)

Discusses methods used in the biological assessment of river quality and such indicators of clean and polluted waters as the Trent Biotic Index, Chandler Score System, and species diversity indexes. Includes a summary of a river classification scheme based on quality criteria related to water use. (JN)

Provides a brief synopsis of how geographic features molded transportation history in the United States. Special emphasis is put on the relationship between river transportation and the formation of towns. Included are examples which show how topographic maps illustrate why certain locations were chosen for settlements. (JDH)

Exploration of the relationships between river recreationists' experience preferences and characteristics of their participation social groups found that groups with members unknown to each other preferred adventuresome, socially oriented experiences, while those in primary groups preferred experiences that provided quiet, escape, and change. (Author/CB)

Describes development of a successful experiential education program to involve Baltimore County (Maryland) students (grades K-12) in studying the Gunpowder River, which empties into Chesapeake Bay. Identifies success factors including creative teachers, availability and cooperation of local resources, and parental involvement. (NEC)

Behavior modification techniques were evaluated by observing litter collection behavior of commercial rafting groups. The number of litter pieces retrieved by treatment and control groups was significantly different. Results support the idea that verbal appeal and role modeling can be effective litter control techniques. (Author/CW)

A device designed for sampling algae in rivers and streams is described. Techniques for observing algae in the laboratory as well as tips for maximizing success in sampling are given. (SA)

Describes scope and significance of a high school water monitoring project and discusses problems and solutions related to water testing in general and winter water testing in particular. Discussions of stream velocity, stream flow, biotic index, and coliform bacteria tests are included. (DC)

Physical, chemical, and biological effects on macrophytes (aquatic plants) on the freshwater ecosystem are discussed. Research questions and issues related to these organisms are also discussed, including adaptations for survival in a wet environment, ecological consequences of large-scale macrophyte eradication, seasonal changes in plant chemistry (carbon/nitrogen ratios), and others. (JN)

Sedimentary patterns and hydraulic effects can be studies in model streams which are not to scale. The "Western River" is such a model which is being used effectively at Western Carolina College. Construction of the model, student exercises, and observations made when using the model are discussed. (Author/JN)

Experiences, group dynamics, hazards curriculum, and logistics of a canoe trip of the Mississippi River are discussed. (RE)

Discusses exercises using a river for the study of river processes and landforms. Although developed for college, they can be adapted for other levels. Exercises involve discharge measurement, flood prediction, and application of the Hjulstrom diagram to river sediments. (JN)

Discusses a project that (1) uses telecommunications technology to link the river communities of the past with students today; and (2) uses thematic, interdisciplinary projects to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Notes that 20 school buildings in four Ohio school districts will be participating. (RS)

Presents an overview of the educational programs, concerts, and other activities which take place aboard the 76-foot sloop "Clearwater" in a privately-funded effort to bring New York's Hudson River closer to the people. (WB)

Described is an advanced biology class project involving study of the effects of organic pollution on an aquatic ecosystem from an sewage treatment plant overflow to evaluate the chemical quality and biological activity of the river water. (DS)

Climate change is affecting the phenology of organisms and ecosystem processes across a wide range of environments. However, the links between organismal and ecosystem process change in complex communities remain uncertain. In snow-dominated watersheds, snowmelt in the spring and early summer, followed by a long low-flow period, characterizes the natural flow regime of streams and rivers. Here, we examined how earlier snowmelt will alter the phenology of mountain stream organisms and ecosystem processes via an outdoor mesocosm experiment in stream channels in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. The low-flow treatment, simulating a 3- to 6-wk earlier return to summer baseflow conditions projected under climate change scenarios in the region, increased water temperature and reduced biofilm production to respiration ratios by 32%. Additionally, most of the invertebrate species explaining community change (56% and 67% of the benthic and emergent taxa, respectively), changed in phenology as a consequence of the low-flow treatment. Further, emergent flux pulses of the dominant insect group (Chironomidae) almost doubled in magnitude, benefitting a generalist riparian predator. Changes in both invertebrate community structure (composition) and functioning (production) were mostly fine-scale, and response diversity at the community level stabilized seasonally aggregated responses. Our study illustrates how climate change in vulnerable mountain streams at the rain-to-snow transition is poised to alter the dynamics of stream food webs via fine-scale changes in phenology-leading to novel predator-prey matches or mismatches even when community structure and ecosystem processes appear stable at the annual scale.

Ecosystems that are coupled by reciprocal flows of energy and nutrient subsidies can be viewed as a single "meta-ecosystem." Despite these connections, the reciprocal flow of subsidies is greatly asymmetrical and seasonally pulsed. Here, we synthesize existing literature on stream-riparian meta-ecosystems to quantify global patterns of the amount of subsidy consumption by organisms, known as "allochthony." These resource flows are important since they can comprise a large portion of consumer diets, but can be disrupted by human modification of streams and riparian zones. Despite asymmetrical subsidy flows, we found stream and riparian consumer allochthony to be equivalent. Although both fish and stream invertebrates rely on seasonally pulsed allochthonous resources, we find allochthony varies seasonally only for fish, being nearly three times greater during the summer and fall than during the winter and spring. We also find that consumer allochthony varies with feeding traits for aquatic invertebrates, fish, and terrestrial arthropods, but not for terrestrial vertebrates. Finally, we find that allochthony varies by climate for aquatic invertebrates, being nearly twice as great in arid climates than in tropical climates, but not for fish. These findings are critical to understanding the consequences of global change, as ecosystem connections are being increasingly disrupted.

Estuaries and coasts runoff plays a crucial role in the dynamics of the ocean system. However, the current emphasis on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) retrieved current velocities has been on studying strong boundary currents and large-scale ocean circulation, resulting in relatively limited observational research on estuarine current velocities. This study aims to observe the current velocities in the Yangtze River estuary area using Sentinel-1A SAR data. The findings indicate a high agreement between the current velocities retrieved by Sentinel-1A and those observed at hydrographic stations, showcasing the characteristics of current velocity distribution associated with seafloor topography. This highlights the significant potential of SAR in observing estuarine current velocities, contributing to the analysis of benthic topography and the statistics of river runoff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT Aim Location Taxon Methods Results Main Conclusions We address the relative importance of biogeographic regions (areas of endemism), regional climate and spatial factors on taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic beta diversity of bird assemblages in upland terra‐firme forests in the Amazon.Amazon biome.Birds.We gathered 27,498 occurrence records of 873 bird species for 115 bird assemblages distributed in all nine biogeographic regions delimited by the major Amazonian rivers. Only data from studies surveying whole communities with standard sampling methods and exhaustive sampling effort were included. We partitioned the fractions of taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic beta diversity explained by climate, biogeographic regions, spatial factors and the variation shared between them.Across the entire Amazon, we found higher total taxonomic (0.68 ± 0.10) than phylogenetic (0.46 ± 0.08) β‐diversity, and low functional β‐diversity (0.34 ± 0.08). Biogeographic regions showed the highest unique contributions explaining taxonomic and phylogenetic β‐total (7% and 5%, respectively) and turnover components (7% of β‐jtu taxonomic, 7% of β‐jtu phylogenetic), but accounted for only 2% of total functional β‐diversity and trait turnover. Climatic variables explained slightly more trait nestedness (5%) compared with species and lineage turnover (3% each). Species composition was clearly distinct between biogeographical regions limited by the Amazon River, but support for the effect of other rivers was mixed.Our study highlights the significant influence of biogeographic regions and climate on species composition in the Amazon. However, our findings also suggest that the Amazon River exerts a more pronounced impact on species distribution compared with other major Amazonian rivers. Species turnover across biogeographical regions is particularly evident at the species level, with minor effects observed in functional traits, suggesting that taxonomic turnover is driven mainly by functionally redundant species. In addition, recent diversification events, occurring predominantly at the tips of the phylogeny without substantial turnover at deeper nodes, are likely responsible for the patchy distribution of species across Amazonia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biodiversity is confronted globally by multiple stressors. Environmental policies must regulate these stressors to achieve targets, but how should that be done when the outcomes of limits on one stressor are contingent on other stressors, about which there is imperfect knowledge? Deriving regulatory frameworks that incorporate these contingencies is an emerging challenge at the science–policy interface. To be fit for implementation, these frameworks need to facilitate the inherently sociopolitical process of policy implementation and account transparently for uncertainty, such that practitioners and other stakeholders can more realistically anticipate the range of potential outcomes to policy. We developed an approach to quantify stressor limits that explicitly accounts for multistressor contingencies. Using an invertebrate data set collected over 30 years throughout New Zealand, we combined ecological and ecotoxicological models to predict biodiversity loss as a function of one stressor, treating multistressor contingencies as a form of uncertainty about the outcomes of limits on that stressor. We transparently accounted for that uncertainty by presenting regulatory limits as bands bounded between optimistic and pessimistic views that practitioners may have about the local context within which limits are applied. In addition to transparently accounting for uncertainties, our framework also leaves room for practitioners to build stakeholder consensus when refining limits to suit different local contexts. A criticism of this open, transparent approach is that it creates too much scope for choosing limits that are lenient on polluters, paralyzing on‐the‐ground management of multiple stressors, but we demonstrate that this is not necessarily the case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Tecnología y Ciencias del Agua is the property of Instituto Mexicano de Tecnologia del Agua (IMTA) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As human-caused climate changes accelerate, California will experience hydrologic and temperature conditions different than any encountered in recorded history. How will these changes affect the state's freshwater ecosystems? Rivers, lakes, and wetlands are managed as a water resource, but they also support a complex web of life, ranging from bacteria, fungi, and algae to macrophytes, woody plants, invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. In much of the state, native freshwater organisms already struggle to survive massive water diversions and dams, deteriorating water quality, extensive land cover modification for agriculture and urban development, and invasions of exotic species. In the face of climate change, we need to expand efforts to recover degraded ecosystems and to protect the resilience, health, and viability of existing ecosystems. For this, more process-based understanding of river, lake, and wetlands ecosystems is needed to forecast how systems will respond to future climate change and to our interventions. This will require 1) expanding our ability to model mechanistically how freshwater biota and ecosystems respond to environmental change; 2) hypothesis-driven monitoring and field studies; 3) education and training to build research, practitioner, stewardship, and policy capabilities; and 4) developing tools and policies for building resilient ecosystems. A goals-driven, hypothesis-informed collaboration among tribes, state (and federal) agencies, nongovernmental organizations, academicians, and consultants is needed to accomplish these goals and to advance the skills and knowledge of the future workforce of practitioners, regulators, and researchers who must live with the climate changes that are already upon us and will intensify. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Kashechewan First Nation (KFN) community is located on a floodplain of the north branch of the Albany River, on the west coast of James Bay. Each spring, the community faces the uncertain prospect of evacuation due to ice-jam flooding, the most severe of which occurred in 2006. A study was conducted to develop long-term options for reducing the flood risk to the community, which included dams, dykes, pier and weir type ice-control structures, and conveyance channels. This paper presents a numerical model study on the Albany River in Ontario, Canada to develop ice control as a potential means for mitigating ice-jam flooding at the KFN community using the two-dimensional ice dynamics model DynaRICE. A method was developed to simulate pier type ice-control structures within the model such that the physical channel conditions, flow conditions, and combinations of ice control could be evaluated. The model allowed detailed simulation of ice retention, resulting inundation, and the forces on the individual piers. To optimize the design of the piers, including pier spacing, height, and size, various combinations of ice, flow, and pier conditions were simulated. Numerical modeling facilitated a comparative examination of flood risk reduction to the community from the various ice control options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The onset of glaciation in the late Cenozoic caused rapid bedrock erosion above the snowline; however, whether the influx of eroded sediment is recorded in continental weathering and basin accumulation rates is an ongoing debate. We propose that the transport of glacially eroded bedrock through the fluvial system damps the signal of rapid headwater erosion and results in steady basin‐integrated sediment flux. Using a numerical model with integrated glacial and fluvial erosion, we find that headwater bedrock erosion rates increase rapidly at the onset of glaciation and continue to fluctuate with climatic oscillation. However, bedrock erosion rates decrease in the downstream fluvial system because larger grain sizes from glaciers result in an increase in sediment cover effect. When erosion and sediment flux rates are averaged, long‐term sediment flux is similar to nonglacial flux values, while localized bedrock erosion rates in the glaciated landscape are elevated 2–4 times compared to nonglacial values. Our simulated values are consistent with field measurements of headwater bedrock erosion, and the pattern of sediment flux and fluvial erosion matches paraglacial theory and terrace aggradation records. Thus, we emphasize that the bedload produced from glacial erosion provides a missing link to reconcile late Cenozoic erosion records. Plain Language Summary: Glaciers are effective erosion agents and the start of mountain glaciation is thought to correspond to higher alpine erosion rates. However, at the landscape‐scale, there is little to no change in erosion rates across the start of glaciation. In order to connect across these scales, we use a computer model to calculate erosion rates and sediment transfer rates. We find that the increase in sediment size from glaciation will lower erosion rates in rivers. Larger sediment sits on the riverbed and protects the underlying rock from erosion. Despite rapid erosion by glaciers upstream of the river, the slower erosion rates in the river result in a constant rate of sediment transferred out. Therefore, sediment transfer from glacier to river systems is an important process for understanding erosion across landscape scales. Key Points: Bedrock erosion downstream of glaciers is damped through an increase in sediment cover effect caused by glacier‐produced sedimentBasin‐wide sediment flux is similar to unglaciated sediment flux at timescales of >100 kyGlacially derived bedload provides a missing link between rapid bedrock erosion rates and steady basin accumulation and weathering rates [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contribution of citizen scientists to environmental monitoring is notably increasing significantly. Governments worldwide establish Water Users Associations (WUAs) as a good practice model to implement Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) at local levels. These associations target different stakeholders depending on the expected outcome. However, their effectiveness, especially in East Africa, can only be determined case by case. In Kenya, Water Resources Users Associations are registered, voluntary community groups whose members are water users and land owners. Similarly, in Uganda, community-based initiatives exist, especially along degraded rivers, involving cooperation between local communities and regional water authorities. On the contrary, it has been reported that in Tanzania, many community initiatives created become non-functional within 2-3 years of induction. In general, the main responsibility of Water Users Associations or its equivalent is to manage and conserve water resources for sustainable uses. In most cases, water quality monitoring by communities through citizen science is limited to the visual appearance of water in the river channel. While this can indicate the water's esthetic value, it is insufficient for assessing the ecological status of rivers, which is influenced by a variety of physical, chemical, biological, and socioeconomic factors. The use of bioindicators has been advocated as a feasible method for community-based water quality river monitoring. Therefore, this review explores the commonly used bio-indicators and bio-assessment tools for river health assessment and their complexities when using a biomonitoring community-based approach through citizen science. Tolerance and intolerance macroinvertebrate and fish metric protocols that utilize identification keys have been recommended. These protocols are designed to be user-friendly and require minimal taxonomic expertise, making them easy for community volunteers to use with minimal basic training. The sustainability of these citizen science initiatives relies on the motivation of volunteers, the frequency of monitoring activities, and collaboration with researchers and government agencies. These initiatives not only facilitate environmental monitoring but also foster community engagement and awareness regarding the ecological status of rivers, thereby addressing knowledge and data gaps necessary for effective policy-making. This approach provides a practical model for environmental stewardship and participatory resource management in East Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of 'legal personhood and rights of rivers' has developed as an alternative to anthropocentric legal frameworks that focus only on the instrumental values of rivers. Obtaining legal personhood marks a key milestone in legal recognition that could provide for the protection of rivers for more than the instrumental values that they hold. However, who could be considered legal persons is the subject of widespread debate in Western jurisprudence. Legalists hold that anything and anyone can be a legal person while Realists believe that a legal person is defined by certain attributes held only by certain categories of persons. One of the main arguments against the personhood of rivers raised by Realists is that rivers are not sentient beings and, consequently, they are incapable of holding the status of a legal person. The idea that nature is not a sentient being is mainly a Western construct. This research analyses the theory of legal personhood to determine whether rivers can and should be legal persons. It challenges the Realist claim that rivers cannot be legal persons because they lack sentience, drawing on Indigenous Vedda ontologies in Sri Lanka and Aboriginal worldviews from the continent now called Australia. The authors argue that a pluralistic approach to legal personhood is crucial in recognising and valuing our hyperconnected world, preventing categorisation, homogenisation and colonisation of ontologies and addressing sustainability challenges surrounding rivers. The research contributes to the existing scholarly work by defending the concept of legal personhood for rivers within a more pluralistic legal philosophy and addressing one of its major criticisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study analyzes the changes in the Neva Bay bottom morphology. The aim is to calculate the dynamics of the volume and area variation of the water body under consideration. The work examines those anthropogenic phenomena which had the most profound influence on the alterations in the Neva Bay bottom morphology. The Neva Bay has partially lost its functions as the Neva River detention basin. To build digital models, we used historical data from the Navy archives. Noticeable changes in the impact of the Neva Bay bottom topography on the water exchange processes were recorded due to the construction of the Seaway Canal protective dam, the works to raise the ground elevations in the western part of Vasilyevsky and Krestovsky Islands, and the construction of the Flood Prevention Facility Complex dams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which reported the concentration of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), diclofenac, in three main rivers of the Western Himalayan region. Topics include sampling sites and collection of water samples, main concentration and standard deviation for diclofenac, and diclofenac concentration detected in river water of different countries.

The article presents a study which evaluated the water quality parameters of the Hooghly River in India from 2022 to 2023, specifically during high tide, with a particular focus on the locales of Kamarhati, Panihati, and Khardah. Topics include assessment of comprehensive pollution index, assessment of water quality index, and correlation coefficients among physicochemical parameters.

The gold rush at the end of the nineteenth century in south-eastern Australia resulted in the mobilization and re-deposition of vast quantities of tailings that modified the geomorphology of the associated river valleys. Previous studies of contamination risk in these systems have either been performed directly on mine wastes (e.g., battery sand) or at locations close to historical mine sites but have largely ignored the extensive area of riverine alluvial deposits extending downstream from gold mining locations. Here we studied the distribution of contaminant metal(loids) in the Loddon River catchment, one of the most intensively mined areas of the historical gold-rush period in Australia (1851–1914). Floodplain alluvium along the Loddon River was sampled to capture differences in metal and metalloid concentrations between the anthropogenic floodplain deposits and the underlying original floodplain. Elevated levels of arsenic up to 300 mg-As/kg were identified within the anthropogenic alluvial sediment, well above sediment guidelines (ISQG-high trigger value of 70 ppm) and substantially higher than in the pre-mining alluvium. Maximum arsenic concentrations were found at depth within the anthropogenic alluvium (plume-like), close to the contact with the original floodplain. The results obtained here indicate that arsenic may pose a significantly higher risk within this river catchment than previously assessed through analysis of surface floodplain soils. The risks of this submerged arsenic plume will require further investigation of its chemical form (speciation) to determine its mobility and potential bioavailability. Our work shows the long-lasting impact of historical gold mining on riverine landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Natural Hazards & Environment (JNHE) / Doğal Afetler ve Çevre Dergisi (DACD) is the property of Artvin Coruh University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Nearly ninety percent of New Mexico’s rivers and streams potentially have been removed from federal protection under the Clean Water Act following the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. EPA to substantially reduce what qualify as “waters of the United States.” Before this decision, many ephemeral streams, tributaries, and wetlands were protected by the Environmental Protection Agency. Permits are essential to protect not only the environment but landowners as well. The New Mexico Environment Department is in the process of developing its own surface water discharge permitting program, as the EPA’s jurisdiction contracted commensurately with the Supreme Court’s new definition of “waters of the United States.” The New Mexico Environment Department and water conservationists worry that without a permitting process, many bodies of water in New Mexico and the United States would be left unprotected, allowing unregulated discharge of harmful pollutants into waters on which the public relies for drinking water, agriculture, recreation, and ecological stability. But is requiring a permit enough to protect the waters of New Mexico? How would obtaining a permit through the state protect waters in New Mexico from those who, either intentionally or unintentionally, discharge pollutants into waters outside of New Mexico that flow into the state? Does the interpretation of “waters of the United States” in Sackett only apply to wetlands? This Note addresses the local problems created by the Sackett decision and offers possible solutions to the lack of protection for states like New Mexico with dry and arid climates. It proposes that it is not enough for the New Mexico Environment Department to create its own permitting process—to truly protect our most precious resource, Congress needs to correct the Court’s mistake and enact an improved definition of “waters of the United States” in the Clean Water Act itself. Congress cannot continue to ignore the reoccurring problem of the Court’s intrusion into environmental regulation. Leaving the interpretation of the Clean Water Act to the United States Supreme Court has proven to be a critical error. The time to act was decades ago, and the consequences of Congress’s inaction are at New Mexico’s doorstep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Remote sensing can be an effective tool for mapping river bathymetry, but the need for direct measurements to calibrate image‐derived depth estimates impedes broader application of this approach. One way to circumvent the need for field campaigns dedicated to calibration is to capitalize upon existing data. In this study, we introduce a framework for Bathymetric Mapping using Gage Records and Image Databases (BaMGRID). This workflow involves retrieving depth measurements made during gaging station site visits, downloading archived multispectral images, and then combining these two data sets to establish a relationship between depth and reflectance. We developed a processing chain that involves using application programming interfaces to obtain both depth measurements made during site visits and images centered on the gage and then linking depth to reflectance via an optimal band ratio analysis (OBRA) algorithm modified for small sample sizes. Applying this workflow to selected gages within two river basins indicated that depth retrieval from multispectral satellite images could be highly accurate, but with variable results from one image to the next at a given site. High resolution aerial photography was less conducive to bathymetric mapping in one of the basin considered. Of the four predictors of depth retrieval performance we evaluated (mean and standard deviation of depth, width, and an index of water clarity), only width was consistently significantly correlated with OBRA R2 (p < 0.026). Currently, BaMGRID is best‐suited for site‐by‐site analysis to support practical applications at the reach scale; continuous, basin‐wide mapping of river bathymetry will require additional research. Key Points: Combine depth measurements made during site visits to gaging stations with archived images to enable remote sensing of river bathymetryMultispectral satellite images acquired daily can yield highly accurate depth estimates, but high resolution air photos were less accurateBathymetric Mapping using Gage Records and Image Databases (BaMGRID) is well suited to site‐by‐site analysis for reach‐scale applications [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bridges are metal or concrete structures, which make road connections across rivers when installed over river paths. When flooding or scouring occurs, several issues including bridge destruction and interruption of road connections arise. There are a variety of methods of protecting such structures, one of which is application submerged vanes. This research shows how two vanes with different submergence ratio affected decrease in local scour surrounding one pier and groups of piers installed in a 180-degree bend. The scour around pier groups either in a transverse position to the flow or with a longitudinal direction was analyzed. This finding suggested that applying vanes decreased the deepest scour around the piers in all the tests, and its maximum effect occurred in triad longitudinal pier groups. By raising the submergence ratio, bed scour depth at the outer bank reached its minimum size in longitudinal pier groups. In transverse pier groups, the first scour hole near the outer bank increased in depth in the presence of vanes. By using the vanes, the slope of the scour hole towards the inner bank grew larger than that towards the other bank. The maximum slope of the outer bank happened in the triad transverse pier group at an approximate value of 0.63. The most significant impact of submerged vanes on reducing the upstream slope was observed in a single pier with 75% submerged vanes and triad longitudinal piers with 25% submerged vanes, resulting in reductions of about 50 and 74% respectively compared to piers without vanes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]