Floodplain and wetland areas provide critical ecosystem services to local and downstream communities by retaining sediments, nutrients, and floodwaters. The loss of floodplain functionality due to land use conversion and degradation reduces the provisioning of these services. Assessing, quantifying, and valuing floodplain ecosystem services provide a framework to estimate how floodplain systems influence human well-being and provide information to decision makers on tradeoffs associated with development pressures and conservation priorities.
Research Questions:
- What ecosystem services and associated socio-economic values are provided by floodplains in the Delaware River watershed?
- How do the ecosystem functions of sediment/nutrient retention and flood attenuation vary spatially within floodplains in the Delaware River watershed?
- Where are opportunities to target conservation of high functioning floodplains and restoration of incised streams with eroding banks to optimize ecosystem services in the Delaware River watershed?
Project Approach:
This project integrates lidar mapping, field data collection, and modeling to quantify the ecosystem service of sediment and nutrient retention that floodplains provide in the Delaware River watershed. Ecosystem services are then valued using a replacement cost approach for nutrient and sediment retention and damage cost avoided for flood attenuation.
Mapping Floodplain Features:
Floodplain geomorphic features will be extracted from bare-earth Digital Elevation Models (DEM) with resolutions of 3-m spanning the non-tidal portion of the Delaware River watershed. Floodplain features will be extracted using a new tool called the Floodplain and Channel Evaluation Toolkit (FACET) developed in partnership with the NOAA National Water Center. FACET is a standalone Python tool that uses open source modules to map the floodplain extent and compute stream channel and floodplain geomorphic metrics such as channel width, streambank height, active floodplain width, and stream slope from DEMs.
Field Data Collection Using Dendrogeomorphology:
A total of 15 field sites were selected to include 9 study sites in the Appalachian Plateau and 6 sites spread equally among Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and Valley & Ridge physiographic provinces. Field data collection employed dendrogeomorphic techniques to estimate rates of stream bank erosion and floodplain sediment deposition at each site.
Stream bank erosion rates were determined using root “cookies” to estimate time of root exposure from anatomical changes. Floodplain deposition was quantified at each site by estimating the average depth of sediment burial above the tree root collar divided by the age of the tree determined from annual tree rings taken from a tree core.
Samples of sediment were collected from banks and floodplains and returned to the laboratory for physico-chemical analysis, including nutrient content. Channel, bank, and floodplain topography was surveyed at two cross-sections in each site. Finally, pebble counts measured stream bed particle size along the reach at each site.
Modelling:
The mapping and field datasets will be combined to develop predictive models to estimate sediment and associated nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon trapping and export for each stream reach within the non-tidal portion of Delaware River watershed. The effort will generate predictions of the magnitude and uncertainty of floodplain deposition and bank erosion for each stream reach in the study area.
Below are data or web applications associated with this project.
Physico-chemical characteristics and sediment and nutrient fluxes of floodplains, streambanks, and streambeds in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds
Geomorphometry for Streams and Floodplains in the Chesapeake and Delaware Watersheds
Below are publications associated with this project.
Valuation of the flood attenuation ecosystem service in Difficult Run, VA, USA
A method to quantify and value floodplain sediment and nutrient retention ecosystem services
Below are data or web applications associated with this project.
Floodplain Ecosystem Service Mapper
Healthy floodplains and wetlands provide critical ecosystem services to local and downstream communities by retaining sediments, nutrients, and floodwaters. Land conversion and degradation diminish floodplain functionality and services.
Below are software products associated with this project.
Floodplain and Channel Evaluation Tool (FACET)
The Floodplain and Evaluation Tool (FACET) is an open-source python tool that maps the floodplain extent and derives reach-scale summaries of stream and floodplain geomorphic measurements from high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs).
Stream Channel and Floodplain Metric Toolbox
The Stream Channel and Floodplain Metric Toolbox was developed to demonstrate the feasibility of mapping fluvial geomorphic features from high-resolution bare-earth elevation data.
- Overview
Floodplain and wetland areas provide critical ecosystem services to local and downstream communities by retaining sediments, nutrients, and floodwaters. The loss of floodplain functionality due to land use conversion and degradation reduces the provisioning of these services. Assessing, quantifying, and valuing floodplain ecosystem services provide a framework to estimate how floodplain systems influence human well-being and provide information to decision makers on tradeoffs associated with development pressures and conservation priorities.
Floodplain inundated with water (Public domain.) Research Questions:
- What ecosystem services and associated socio-economic values are provided by floodplains in the Delaware River watershed?
- How do the ecosystem functions of sediment/nutrient retention and flood attenuation vary spatially within floodplains in the Delaware River watershed?
- Where are opportunities to target conservation of high functioning floodplains and restoration of incised streams with eroding banks to optimize ecosystem services in the Delaware River watershed?
Project Approach:
This project integrates lidar mapping, field data collection, and modeling to quantify the ecosystem service of sediment and nutrient retention that floodplains provide in the Delaware River watershed. Ecosystem services are then valued using a replacement cost approach for nutrient and sediment retention and damage cost avoided for flood attenuation.
Mapping Floodplain Features:
Floodplain geomorphic features will be extracted from bare-earth Digital Elevation Models (DEM) with resolutions of 3-m spanning the non-tidal portion of the Delaware River watershed. Floodplain features will be extracted using a new tool called the Floodplain and Channel Evaluation Toolkit (FACET) developed in partnership with the NOAA National Water Center. FACET is a standalone Python tool that uses open source modules to map the floodplain extent and compute stream channel and floodplain geomorphic metrics such as channel width, streambank height, active floodplain width, and stream slope from DEMs.
Digital elevation models are used to map the stream banks and the extent of the floodplain during flood events (Public domain.) Field Data Collection Using Dendrogeomorphology:
Scientists can estimate stream bank erosion rates using exposed tree roots by taking a cross section of the root (Public domain.) A total of 15 field sites were selected to include 9 study sites in the Appalachian Plateau and 6 sites spread equally among Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and Valley & Ridge physiographic provinces. Field data collection employed dendrogeomorphic techniques to estimate rates of stream bank erosion and floodplain sediment deposition at each site.
Stream bank erosion rates were determined using root “cookies” to estimate time of root exposure from anatomical changes. Floodplain deposition was quantified at each site by estimating the average depth of sediment burial above the tree root collar divided by the age of the tree determined from annual tree rings taken from a tree core.
Samples of sediment were collected from banks and floodplains and returned to the laboratory for physico-chemical analysis, including nutrient content. Channel, bank, and floodplain topography was surveyed at two cross-sections in each site. Finally, pebble counts measured stream bed particle size along the reach at each site.
Modelling:
The mapping and field datasets will be combined to develop predictive models to estimate sediment and associated nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon trapping and export for each stream reach within the non-tidal portion of Delaware River watershed. The effort will generate predictions of the magnitude and uncertainty of floodplain deposition and bank erosion for each stream reach in the study area.
Field Sampling Sites within the Delaware River Basin (Public domain.) - Data
Below are data or web applications associated with this project.
Physico-chemical characteristics and sediment and nutrient fluxes of floodplains, streambanks, and streambeds in the Chesapeake Bay and Delaware River watersheds
Dataset includes site averages of measurements of floodplain and streambank sediment physico-chemistry and long-term (dendrogeomorphic) vertical and lateral geomorphic change, and reach scale floodplain width, streambank height, channel width, and streambed particle size. This information was used to calculate fluxes of sediment, fine sediment, sediment-C, sediment-N, and sediment-C of floodplainsGeomorphometry for Streams and Floodplains in the Chesapeake and Delaware Watersheds
Geomorphometry for Streams and Floodplains in the Chesapeake and Delaware Watersheds was generated as part of the project Quantifying Floodplain Ecological Processes and Ecosystem Services in the Delaware River Watershed funded through the William Penn Foundation's Delaware Watershed Research fund. This dataset contains geomorphometry for streams and floodplains in the Chesapeake and Delaware Rive - Publications
Below are publications associated with this project.
Valuation of the flood attenuation ecosystem service in Difficult Run, VA, USA
Floodplains and riparian wetlands provide several ecosystem services that directly benefit people. We present a methodology for valuing the flood attenuation ecosystem service in Difficult Run, a suburban watershed with extensive natural floodplains in northern Virginia. High-resolution lidar-derived data were combined with GIS modeling techniques to produce estimates of flood inundation. We combiA method to quantify and value floodplain sediment and nutrient retention ecosystem services
Floodplains provide critical ecosystem services to local and downstream communities by retaining floodwaters, sediments, and nutrients. The dynamic nature of floodplains is such that these areas can both accumulate sediment and nutrients through deposition, and export material downstream through erosion. Therefore, estimating floodplain sediment and nutrient retention should consider the net flux - Web Tools
Below are data or web applications associated with this project.
Floodplain Ecosystem Service Mapper
Healthy floodplains and wetlands provide critical ecosystem services to local and downstream communities by retaining sediments, nutrients, and floodwaters. Land conversion and degradation diminish floodplain functionality and services.
- Software
Below are software products associated with this project.
Floodplain and Channel Evaluation Tool (FACET)
The Floodplain and Evaluation Tool (FACET) is an open-source python tool that maps the floodplain extent and derives reach-scale summaries of stream and floodplain geomorphic measurements from high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs).
Stream Channel and Floodplain Metric Toolbox
The Stream Channel and Floodplain Metric Toolbox was developed to demonstrate the feasibility of mapping fluvial geomorphic features from high-resolution bare-earth elevation data.