Erin Coenen is a Hydrologist with the Upper Midwest Water Science Center in Mounds View, MN.
Erin Coenen is a Hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Upper Midwest Water Science Center in Minnesota. Since joining the USGS in 2014, she has worked within the River and Coastal Processes team in regional and national studies. Her work focuses on suspended-sediment transport and has spent multiple field seasons collecting suspended sediment, bed load, bed material, and water quality samples. She supports the maintenance of hydroacoustic equipment in surface water studies and assists with developing statistical models to predict the fate and transport of sediment in the environment. Some of her other project work includes bathymetry surveys, stream restoration, sediment oxygen demand rates, and database management.
Science and Products
Suspended-sediment concentrations, acoustic data, and linear regression models for the Lower Minnesota River, Mississippi River, and Lake Pepin, 2015-2017
The use of continuous sediment-transport measurements to improve sand-load estimates in a large sand-bedded river: The Lower Chippewa River, WI
Sediment monitoring and streamflow modeling before and after a stream restoration in Rice Creek, Minnesota, 2010–2019
Using acoustic Doppler velocity meters to estimate suspended sediment along the lower Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers
Sediment oxygen demand: A review of in situ methods
Science and Products
- Data
Suspended-sediment concentrations, acoustic data, and linear regression models for the Lower Minnesota River, Mississippi River, and Lake Pepin, 2015-2017
A series of linear regression models were developed and calibrated for the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. The linear regression models were calibrated using acoustic and suspended-sediment concentration data collected from March through November 2016 and 2017. The estimates of suspended-sediment concentrations from the linear regression were used to calculate loads. The calibrated models were u - Publications
The use of continuous sediment-transport measurements to improve sand-load estimates in a large sand-bedded river: The Lower Chippewa River, WI
Accurately determining sediment loads is necessary for managing river environments but is difficult because multiple processes can lead to large discharge-independent changes in sediment transport. Thus, estimations of sediment load using discharge–sediment rating curves fit to sparse or historical sediment-transport measurements can be inaccurate, necessitating alternative approaches to reduce unSediment monitoring and streamflow modeling before and after a stream restoration in Rice Creek, Minnesota, 2010–2019
The Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD) cooperated with the U.S. Geological Survey to establish a 10-year suspended sediment and bedload monitoring and streamflow modeling study to evaluate the effects of two restored meander sections on middle Rice Creek in Arden Hills, Minnesota. The RCWD goals of this stream restoration were to reduce water quality impairments, improve aquatic habitat, and redUsing acoustic Doppler velocity meters to estimate suspended sediment along the lower Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers
Lake Pepin is the largest naturally formed lake on the Mississippi River and has complex management needs to satisfy economic, environmental, and cultural demands. Lake Pepin is filling in with sediment at a rapid rate compared to conditions before settlement by European immigrants and intense agricultural cultivation. Accordingly, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has developed aggressive plSediment oxygen demand: A review of in situ methods
Sediment oxygen demand (SOD) plays a fundamental role in biological and chemical processes within the benthic layer of a water body. Land use, including agricultural land use, can affect SOD. However, a wide variety of approaches have been used for in situ SOD chamber construction and data collection, and modelers frequently use SOD values from the literature, without consideration of the differen - Multimedia