Simulation of spatial and temporal trends in hydrodynamic conditions of Upper Mississippi River Pool 8

The Upper Mississippi River is in interest to river managers and biologists' dues to its vast ecosystem and past anthropogenic impacts. In order to help restore the river to its once natural state, river managers and biologists need a strong understanding of the hydrodynamics of the system. A two-dimensional hydrodynamic model was developed in Pool 8 of the Upper Mississippi River and utilized for river management applications. The model was constructed using SMS 10.0 grid generation software and processed with SRH-2D software. SRH-2D used Manning's roughness coefficients to calibrate the model to observed water surface elevation data collected by the USGS. The model was validated to an observed water surface elevation profile and percent discharge through 17 transects within the model. The calibrated and validated model was used for river management and biological applications; hypothetical island, drawdown scenarios, residence time study, and habitat suitability assessment. The results showed that the two-dimensional hydrodynamic model could accurately represent a hypothetical island within the lower pool, simulate drawdown scenarios, develop stream traces for particle tracking and residence time calculation, and the creation of habitat suitability maps based on field data. The completion of these applications with the two-dimensional model shows the efficiently and accuracy of the model, and how two-dimensional numerical models are important tools in bridging the gap between engineers and scientists.