Impact of Human Activities to Hydrologic Alterations on the Illinois River
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 17, Issue 4
Abstract
The Illinois River is a tributary of the Mississippi River that connects Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. Starting in 1848 when the Illinois and Michigan Canal began to open, the Illinois River has experienced some major human activities such as the Lake Michigan flow diversion, creation of levee and drainage districts on floodplains, and construction of locks and dams on the river. This paper uses Pettitt-Mann-Whitney change-point statistical analysis to identify the hydrologic change points caused by human activities and to quantify hydrologic alterations in the system. Observed stage data from 12 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gauges and observed flows from three U.S. Geological Survey gauges were used to analyze human effects on hydrologic and hydraulic conditions in the Illinois River. The year 1938 was identified as the change point for low flows and low stages and 1972 as the change point for high flows and high stages. The low flow and stage condition changes were due to a combination of added flow from Lake Michigan, levee and drainage district construction, and construction of locks and dams, whereas the high flow and stage condition changes were due to hydroclimatic change within the Illinois River basin. Analyses based on the Indicators of Hydrologic Alteration (IHA) have shown that the magnitudes, frequency, duration, and number of reversals during low flood conditions were greatly modified by: (1) the construction of locks and dams on the Illinois River that were completed in 1938, (2) the reduction of flow diversion from Lake Michigan, and (3) the hydroclimatic condition change around 1972. The latter change probably contributed to the loss of both soil-moist plants and submerged aquatic plants that once provided several important ecosystem services in the system. The analyses described in this paper, coupled with hydraulic and ecological models, can help with site selection and management plans for the ecosystem restoration of floodplains in regulated rivers.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors want to thank Lisa Shepherd for editing and Brad Larson and Sara Olson for graphics.
References
Ahn, C., Johnston, D. M., Sparks, R. E., and White, D. C. (2006). “Analysis of naturalization alternatives for the recovery of moist-soil plants in the floodplain of the Illinois River.” HydrobiologiaHYDRB8, 565(1), 217–228.
Ahn, C., Sparks, R. E., and White, D. C. (2004). “A dynamic model to predict responses of millets (Echinochloa sp.) to different hydrologic conditions for the Illinois Floodplain-River.” River Res. Appl., 20(5) 485–498.
Alvord, J. W., and Burdick, C. B. (1915). Rep. Rivers and Lakes Commission on the Illinois River and its Bottomlands with Reference to the Conservation of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Control of Floods. Springfield, IL.
Bellrose, F. C., Paveglio, F. L., and Steffeck, D. W. (1979). Waterfowl populations and the changing environment of the Illinois River Valley, State of Illinois, Illinois Institute of Natural Resources, Natural History Survey Division, Urbana, IL.
Changnon, S. A., and Changnon, J. (1996). “History of the Chicago diversion and future implications.” J. Great Lakes Res.JGLRDE, 22(1), 100–118.
Gao, Y. X., Vogel, R. M., Kroll, C. N., Poff, N. L., and Olden, J. D. (2009). “Development of representative indicators of hydrologic alteration.” J. Hydrol. (Amsterdam)JHYDA7, 374(1–2), 136–147.
Todd, K., and Sparks, R. E. (2002). “Historical patterns of river stage and fish communities as criteria for operations of dams on the Illinois River.” River Res. Appl., 18, 3–19.
Magilligan, F. J., and Nislow, K. H. (2005). “Changes in hydrologic regimes by dams.” GeomorphologyGEMPEZ, 71, 61–78.
Olden, J. D., and Poff, N. L. (2003). “Redundancy and the choice of hydrologic indices for characterizing streamflow regimes.” River Res. Appl., 19(2), 101–121.
Pettitt, A. N. (1979). “A non-parametric approach to the changepoint problem.” Appl. Statist.APSTAG, 28(2), 126–135.
Pettitt, A. N. (1980). “A simple cumulative sum-type statistic for the change-point problem with zero - one observations.” BiometrikaBIOKAX, 67(1), 79–84.
Pyron, M., and Neumann, K. (2008). “Hydrologic alterations in the Wabash River watershed.” River Res. Appl., 24(8), 1175–1184.
Richter, B. D., Baumgartner, J. V., Braun, D. P., and Powell, J. (1998). “A spatial assessment of hydrologic alteration within a river network.” Regul. Rivers: Res. Manage., 14(4), 329–340.
Richter, B. D., Baumgartner, J. V., Powell, J., and Braun, D. P. (1996). “A method for assessing hydrologic alteration within ecosystems.” Conserv. Biol.CBIOEF, 10(4), 1163–1174.
Smith, K., and Richman, M. (1993). “Recent hydroclimatic fluctuations and their effects on water resources in Illinois.” Clim. ChangeCLCHDX, 24(3), 249–269.
Sparks, R., et al. (2005). “Linking hydrodynamics, conservation biology, and economics in choosing naturalization alternatives for the Illinois River.” USA. Arch. Hydrobiol., Suppl., 155(1–4), 521–538.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 17 • Issue 4 • April 2012
Pages: 537 - 546
Copyright
© 2012. American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 27, 2010
Accepted: Jun 13, 2011
Published online: Jun 15, 2011
Published in print: Apr 1, 2012
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.