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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Oxford, Mississippi » National Sedimentation Laboratory » Watershed Physical Processes Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #109745
Title: GOODWIN CREEK EXPERIMENTAL WATERSHED: A UNIQUE FIELD LABORATORY

Author
item Alonso, Carlos
item Bingner, Ronald - Ron

Submitted to: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/17/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The Goodwin Creek Experimental Watershed was established in north central Mississippi as a part of the "Streambank Erosion Control Evaluation and Demonstration Project" authorized by Section 32 of Public Law 93-251. The US Army Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg District, provided much of the construction funds when this watershed was originally established and the USDA National Sedimentation Laboratory (NSL) has operated the watershed since October, 1981. The watershed is organized and instrumented for studying relationships between runoff, sediment yield, fluvial geomorphology, and controlling watershed and climatic variables. The watershed also serves as a prototype for the much larger Demonstration Erosion Control Project in the Yazoo River Basin. This paper presents an overview of the data collection and hydrologic research programs carried out on the watershed.

Technical Abstract: This paper describes the current research program on the Goodwin Creek Experimental Watershed (GCEW). This watershed drains a 21 km2 area in northern Mississippi, and it is organized and instrumented to conduct research on watershed hydrology, upstream erosion, instream sediment transport, channel stability, and controlling watershed and climatic variables. Land use and management practices range from timbered areas to row crops. Data collection is directed towards maintaining a complete watershed database, which in turn is used to gain a better knowledge of watershed erosion, sediment transport, and channel instability problems. The watershed is instrumented with a distributed network of 14 instream measuring stations for runoff and sediment yield, a weather station, and 32 raingages. Data is transmitted via radio-telemetry to computers at the National Sedimentation Laboratory (NSL). A Geographic Information System is used to compile spatially distributed data that includes land use, soils, topography, stream network, channel attributes, and stabilization measures.