Photo By David Elmstrom | The hydrology and hydraulics teams (left to right) Charles Boyd, Mike Snyder, Jeremiah...... read more read more
The St. Paul District’s water management section works every day to maintain the Mississippi River and regulate the flows through St. Paul District reservoirs and dams.
When a flooding event like the 2023 spring flood happens, all three sections (hydrologic engineering, hydraulic design, and water management) move into an “all hands on deck” response, developing detailed hydraulics and hydrology modeling, and working with sister agencies, partner organizations and local communities to forecast water flows and predict possible flooding outcomes.
The team’s response began in January, when the hydraulics and hydrology branch met with state officials and partners at the National Weather Service to take a look at what the spring flood outlook might be in the four basins of the St. Paul District: the Mississippi, Minnesota, Red and Souris rivers.
In February and March, the group monitored conditions and conducted snow surveys throughout the region to validate the models predicting the amount of snow on the ground.
“We had a lot of snow water equivalent on the ground, the probabilistic forecasts were showing some flood potential and we needed to step up our efforts from a modeling standpoint,” said Kari Hauck, chief of the hydraulics and hydrology branch. “We sent reconnaissance teams out into the field to get a feel for what kind of snow we had out there and how the melt is proceeding.”
Heather Henneman, chief of the hydrologic engineering section, said the forecasting is a bit art, and a bit science, because there are so many variables: how “wet” the snow is, how frozen the ground is to allow for absorption into the ground, speed of melt and various spring weather events, are just several of many variables that can impact flooding.
The hydraulic design section develops modeling for what real world flooding impacts may be. Using the Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System modeling software, the data on the level of water flow in the spring is translated into how that water will behave in the river and overland as it flows downstream. This information helps the St. Paul District communicate and support communities at risk of flooding so they can make informed and timely decisions in the event they need to prepare and deploy flood fighting measures.
The modeling provides the extent and depth of flooding used to generate inundation maps, which show where flooding may occur over a range of water levels.
“I think we provide a lot of good information,” Hauck said. “Our partnership with the National Weather Service is one of the things that we prize, and we put a lot of time and investment in to make sure that we’re all working together.”
| Date Taken: | 06.13.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 06.13.2023 16:10 |
| Story ID: | 447078 |
| Location: | ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA, US |
| Web Views: | 50 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Teams provide key flood data for partner agencies, local communities, by David Elmstrom, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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