Humid Temperate Landscapes

A Regional Approach

All elements of physical geography integrated in the ecoregion approach of Robert Bailey, UCLA Geographer, U.S. Forest Service

For GCU 672 s

• Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) – brings summer rains in equatorial &

tropical latitudes

Subtropical High – brings drought, annually or seasonally

Polar Front – brings precipitation in the midlatitudes

Polar Easterlies – the cold landscapes of tundra and ice caps

Organized by basic climate processes controlling precipitation and temperature

Organization

• 1st – climate• 2nd – soils • 3rd – landforms• & hydrology• 4th – biogeography• with emphasis on the role of humans in

transporting invading species

ClimateTemperate & Cold Humid Environments

Polar Front: zone of storms from convergence of westerly winds and

polar easterly winds

Polar Jet above Polar Front

Jet Streams direct our storms

Variety of Moist Temperature & Cold Climates

• Warm & Cold Seasons

• Year-Round Precipitation

Wet!

Months of temp

above freezing

(growing season)

Helsinki

Toronto

Net Result: VegetationMiddle Climate:

Temperate & Coniferous

Forests & Grasslands

Soils

Alfisol – temperate deciduous forest

Ultisol – hot summers, SE USA

Spodosol – conifers, acid soil

Ultisol – hot

summers, SE USASpodosol –

conifers, acid soilAlfisol – temperate deciduous forest

Soil Processes

Alfisol

Organic matter accumulate

in A-horizon

clays concentrate in

B-horizona

Warm & Wet Southeast USA

Ultisol isclose totropicalsoil (oxisol)except much betternutrientholding

Spodosol (podzolization)

Landforms & Hydrology

1. Groundwater Effluent & Perennial Streams & Drainage Basin - review

2. Regular Flooding & Issues of Floodplain Management Common Concerns in Temperate & Cold Humid Regions

3. Damnation & Damworld4. Drainage Basins & Pollution

Management5. Relicts of the past6. Drought, Wildfires & Landslides

1. Groundwater Effluent & Perennial Streams & Drainage Basins – quick review

Landforms & Hydrology

DesertHumid

Water infiltrates & moves to stream

Arizona has a few examples

Perennial Streams typical in Northwest, Mountains, and Eastern USA

Drainage Basins ignore many political boundaries

Role and Benefits of Territorial cooperation

Projects can:

Arouse among cooperation actors a real sharing of their common problems, enhance the alpine identity, make alpine people feel that they are

part of a wider community.

increase knowledge exchanges among territories, so as to protect their heritage and prevent the hydrogeological risk

enhance the environmental sustainability of territorial choices

increase the economic integration and the competitivity of alpine communitiesbut, most of all

Drainage Basins require interstatecooperation

2. Regular Flooding & Issues of Floodplain Management Common Concerns in Temperate & Cold Humid Regions

Landforms & Hydrology

POTOMAC RIVER FLOODING: JUNE 28, 2006

Floodplain Definition: Geomorphic perspective

That portion of a Drainage Basin that is covered by Transported Sediment that was deposited in or near a stream channel.

That portion that receives, holds, contributes and transports sediment

That portion of a Drainage Basin that is covered by Transported Sediment that was deposited in or near a stream channel.

From FEMA

Floodplain Definition

fromhabitat

perspective

That portion of a river corridor that receives and manufactures nutrients/energy and provides habitat.

Law & the Floodplain

A 100 year floodplain is an area along a water course that is normally dry but has a one percent change of becoming wet in any single year.An area that receives, holds and transports excess water

Reviewing Key Definitions

• BASE FLOOD - The National Flood Insurance Program adopted the 1% chance ("100-year") flood as the base flood to indicate the minimum level of flooding to be used by a community in its floodplain management regulations and where flood insurance may be required.

• FLOODPLAIN - Low lands adjoining the channel of a river, stream, or watercourse, or ocean, lake or other body of water, which have been or may be inundated by flood water in a 1% chance flood event.

Probability

Based on

prior

record

for that

stream

Floodplain Map

Picture of Flood Insurance Rate Map Panel, Lake Charles, LA showing the new FIRM format.

Flooplain Modeling

Assists in Planning

1 2 3 4 5 6

1990s

1980s

1970s

1960s

1950s

1940s

1930s

1920s

1910s

BILLIONS (adjusted to 1999 dollars)

Trends in Flood Damages

• $6 billion annually

• Four-fold increase from early 1900s

• Per Capita Damages increased by more than a factor of 2.5 in the previous century in real dollar terms

PresidentialDisaster

Declarations

MostlyTemperate

Humid

PHILADELPHIA: DEBRIS FROM FLOODING ON SCHUYLKILL RIVER

SYDNEY, NY: ROAD WASHOUT

River flooding events 1998-2002 • About 100 (river) floods: 700 fatalities, displacement of half a million people and

25 billion EUR in insured economic losses

100

105

110

115

120

125

1980 1985 1990 1995

built-up area

1980 = 100

population density

Data-source: EEA, 2004

Elbe Flood 2002Elbe Flood 2002

Road betweenRoad betweenBitterfeld andBitterfeld and

Eilenburg, SaxonyEilenburg, Saxony

Planning, but what then?

Cincinnati Riverfront

Source: Port of Greater Cincinnati Development Authority

Serpentine Wall, Cincinnati

Savannah River Levee, Augusta, Georgia

Tom McCall Riverfront Park, Portland, Oregon

Indian Bend Wash,

Scottsdale, AZ

3. Dam state, Dam nation & Dam worldLandforms & Hydrology

Colo.River Dams

Hoover Dam

Glen Canyon Dam

Lake Powell and the Colorado River, Colorado Plateau, UT-AZLake Powell and the Colorado River, Colorado Plateau, UT-AZ“The building of Glen Canyon Dam ushered in the modern environmental

movement…” -- David Brower, Sierra Club

“The canyonlands did have a heart, aliving heart, and that heart was GlenCanyon and the wild Colorado.”

-- Edward Abbey

50

Glen Canyon Dam

Mono Lake, Sierra Nevada, CAMono Lake, Sierra Nevada, CAWater drawn to supply LA has resulted in lowered lake levels,

increased salinity, and an endangered ecosystem.

Las Vegas, NVLas Vegas, NVRapid urbanization in a desert

setting stresses surface and ground water resources.

Upper Mississippi River SystemUpper Mississippi River System

• 37 Lock Sites

• 1,200 Miles of River

• Significant Ecosystem

(2.7 million acres)

• Constructed 1930-45

2

Social and Economic Implications of Dams

Relocation of communities:

- impacts on health, & economic, social, cultural well-being

Loss of community control over water:

- transfer of control from local level to central government or corporate

control Diseases: - encouraged by dam projects

(creating habitat for parasites), e.g. schistosomiasis, mosquitoes

Increasing cost of dams:

- problems encountered in building dams (ex. sedimentation).- cost of mitigating social, environmental impacts.- delays- best sites already taken -- only more remote, more difficult sites left. http://www.idsnet.org/Resources/Dams/Development/impact-econ.html

Dams can promote Malaria

• single-celled protozoa Plasmodium

• transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes

• causes 1 million deaths per year

• fever-like symptoms• high resistance to

drugs

India’s History with Dams

According to the World Commission on dams:

Over the last 50 years, India has built more than 1500 large dams. 70% of the irrigation projects are still incomplete

16 million Indian people have been forced from their homes because of these dams.

¾ of these people were not ‘rehabilitated’

Picture of a village, now an island

http://www.narmada.org/images/satyagraha2003/sat7.jpg

Changes due to Three Gorges Dam construction, China

Changes due to the construction of dam

• 1987: Nature of the river and surrounding landscape before the dam

• 2004: The enormous dam is clearly visible

Changes due to Atatürk Dam, Turkey

Development of Harran region is strikingly apparent in these images

Right-hand corner of the 1999 image shows irrigated fields surrounding the town of Harran

The dam provides power and irrigation water

Imagery seen in this presentation is courtesy of Ron Dorn and other ASU colleagues, students and colleagues in other academic departments such as Profs. Oberlander at U.C. Berkeley, individual illustrations in scholarly journals such as Science and Nature, scholarly societies such as the Association of American Geographers, city, state governments, other countries government websites and U.S. government agencies such as Dr. Robert Bailey and the U.S. Forest Service, FEMA, NASA, USGS, NRCS, Library of Congress, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service USAID and NOAA.