Assessing downstream stormwater impacts for urban watershed planning

The urbanization of watersheds has caused debilitating effects to downstream aquatic ecosystems in catchments and streams. The implementation of green infrastructure (GI), such as permeable pavements and bioretention facilities, has been shown to alleviate these effects by both reducing runoff and mitigating pollutants; however, the implements are often not designed with a specific goal of water improvement. This study targets understanding a small, impaired urban watershed, and the benefits green infrastructure may have to provide environmental, social, and economic improvement to the watershed. Portions of Rolla including much of the S&T campus drain into the impaired urban waterbody Frisco Lake, plagued with poor water quality, eutrophication, and a substantial fish kill that took place in 2014. Lake phosphorus (P) concentration serves as a good indicator of freshwater quality due to its pertinence to algal growth. Beginning in the fall of 2014, monitoring methods, involving sampling and laboratory analysis, were used to support the modeling of stormwater runoff flows and P loads at outfalls draining into the contaminated lake. Monitoring results showed TP yields of 17 and 31 kg/ha/yr and mean-annual concentrations of 0.43 and 0.42 mg/L at the stormwater outfalls to the lake and were used in mass balance modeling to determine a required 40% P loading reduction to improve lake quality. Recommendations for upstream stormwater management, including a proposed GI plan were developed. Stormwater improvements were projected and used in a post-GI implemented Frisco Lake mass balance model, resulting in healthy lake P levels. The project methodology and watershed improvement plan are to be utilized by city managers for watershed management planning. --Abstract, page iv

Geomorphic Assessment of Ravenwood Creek Lake Springfield Park, Springfield, Missouri

Modifications of the watershed surface and channel system during urbanization can result in downstream channel instability due to changes in storm water runoff rates and sediment load regime. This project involves the investigation of the geomorphic conditions that influence channel instability in a small stream draining a residential area of the southeastern part of the City of Springfield, Missouri. The channel has been affected by increased flooding, bed and bank erosion, and planform change. Local officials have questions about the potential risk to sewer and utility lines. In addition, local residents have concerns about the risks posed by flooding and bank erosion to their properties located downstream immediately downstream of the project site. Olsson Associates contracted the Ozarks Environmental and Water Resources Institute (OEWRI) in Spring 2007 to complete a geomorphic assessment of the 700 ft long reach of Ravenwood Creek that flows through Lake Springfield Park. The objectives of the study are: (i) perform a field investigation of the longitudinal profile, channel cross-section, substrate properties, and bank conditions present; (ii) evaluate the geomorphic setting and causes of instability; and (iii) submit a final report on stream stability and related channel restoration recommendation. This report will provide information for the planning and design process for proposed Ravenwood Creek drainage and channel improvements by the City of Springfield

Geomorphic Analysis of the Main Channel of the Golf Club of Kansas Site in Lenexa, Kansas

This report describes the geomorphic condition and stability of the main stream channel draining the Golf Club of Kansas Site in Lenexa, Kansas. It is prepared for Olsson Associates by Dr. Robert T. Pavlowsky of the Ozarks Environmental and Water Resources Institute at Missouri State University. The information provided in this report was provided by on-line sources, Olsson Associates, and fieldwork at the site by Pavlowsky and three staff on April 11-12, 2007. This report provides data and professional opinion to support the restoration planning and channel design for the site

Indian Creek Fluvial Geomorphology Study, Olathe, Kansas

Olsson Associates (OA) contracted the Ozarks Environmental and Water Resources Institute (OEWRI) at Missouri State University to complete a geomorphic assessment of the channel network within Upper Indian Creek watershed in Olathe, Kansas. In this study, the field-based channel survey used is specifically focused on stream related problems involving public infrastructure and private property of a highly urbanized watershed. The assessment is designed to not only locate “problem” areas, but to also identify the causes of those problems. This study focused on the upper 11 mi2 of Indian Creek that generally flows northeast from the City of Olathe from Avalon Street to Pflumm Road. The main channel of Indian Creek had the highest number of problems, but the tributaries have the highest density (problems per stream mile) of problems. In total, 5.2 miles of main channel and 9.6 miles of tributaries were evaluated for this project and 188 problems were identified and located. There were 55 problems located on the main channel, for a density of about 10 problems per stream mile. For the tributaries, there were 133 problems located for a density of nearly 14 problems per stream mile. This suggests the tributaries in this watershed appear to be changing more rapidly and offer more challenges in terms of infrastructure maintenance and protection than the main channel. The highest density of problems came from tributaries 7 and 8 (T-7 and T-8) west of Mur-Len Road and north of 135th street with \u3e50 problems per stream mile. Impervious surfaces associated with urban land use have decreased infiltration capacity of the soil and increased the magnitude, duration and frequency of floods. Indian Creek and its tributaries have responded to the increase in flows by getting larger overall and locally unstable. Results of the main channel assessment suggest bank erosion is the major process creating infrastructure problems along the main channel as it appears bedrock is limiting incision along much of the channel. Channel incision along a series of head cuts moving upstream is the major process impacting public infrastructure and private property along the tributaries within the Indian Creek watershed. Additional study of geomorphic stability in Indian Creek should focus on the causes and rates of head cutting in the tributaries and the lateral rates of channel erosion in the lower segment with attention to the causes and bedrock control of bluff failure due to bank erosion

Interaction between Long-Term Potentiation and Depression in CA1 Synapses: Temporal Constrains, Functional Compartmentalization and Protein Synthesis

Information arriving at a neuron via anatomically defined pathways undergoes spatial and temporal encoding. A proposed mechanism by which temporally and spatially segregated information is encoded at the cellular level is based on the interactive properties of synapses located within and across functional dendritic compartments. We examined cooperative and interfering interactions between long-term synaptic potentiation (LTP) and depression (LTD), two forms of synaptic plasticity thought to be key in the encoding of information in the brain. Two approaches were used in CA1 pyramidal neurons of the mouse hippocampus: (1) induction of LTP and LTD in two separate synaptic pathways within the same apical dendritic compartment and across the basal and apical dendritic compartments; (2) induction of LTP and LTD separated by various time intervals (0–90 min). Expression of LTP/LTD interactions was spatially and temporally regulated. While they were largely restricted within the same dendritic compartment (compartmentalized), the nature of the interaction (cooperation or interference) depended on the time interval between inductions. New protein synthesis was found to regulate the expression of the LTP/LTD interference. We speculate that mechanisms for compartmentalization and protein synthesis confer the spatial and temporal modulation by which neurons encode multiplex information in plastic synapses