ISIS ecosystem restoration feasibility study

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Date
2013-04Author
Kaplan, Julie
Childers, Jamie
Trawick, E. Dean
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Show full item recordAbstract
Tetra Tech is supporting the United States
Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Mobile District and
DeKalb County in a feasibility study for ecosystem restoration
in the Sugar and Snapfinger Creek watersheds in
DeKalb County, Georgia. Flashy hydrology, resulting
from urban development, has caused excess bank erosion
and sedimentation in the streams. The feasibility phase of
this study involved baseline biological monitoring, hydrologic
modeling, selection of potential management
measures, and analysis of project alternatives. Over 100
potential management measures were evaluated, and selected
measures were strategically combined into alternative
plans. Environmental benefits of alternative plans
were evaluated using the Ecosystem Response Model
which was developed in a collaborative effort by North
Georgia Water Resource Agencies (NGWRA) to quantify
environmental quality for USACE studies around North
Georgia. The proposed measures were selected to reduce
peak flows, improve physical habitat conditions and biotic
communities in the stream systems, and improve riparian
and floodplain functions. The process of evaluating alternatives
for this study revealed that the greatest benefit to
the overall watershed was provided by measures placed in
the headwaters and by large flow attenuation features that
can significantly reduce peak flows.