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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Oxford, Mississippi » National Sedimentation Laboratory » Water Quality and Ecology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #64731
Title: THE DEMONSTRATION EROSION CONTROL (DEC) PROJECT IN THE YAZOO BASIN

Author
item Cooper, Charles
item HUDSON, F - U S ARMY CORPS OF ENGRS
item BRAY, K - NRCS

Submitted to: Federal Interagency Sedimentation Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/15/1995
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The erosion/sedimentation cycle continues to be an area of conservation emphasis because of its detrimental effects and potential for contamination. Cost factors and combining real-world construction with research make it difficult to test new designs on a real-world scale or to properly evaluate erosion/sedimentation projects on a watershed scale. In hill land regions without stream bed controls (bedrock), channels have commonly degraded 2-3 meters into the landscape and have set off massive bank failures, many times resulting in explosive channel widening. Headcuts, bank caving, and gully formation are common landscape features. The Demonstration Erosion Control (DEC) Project in the Yazoo Basin is a large-scale federal interagency demonstration and research project centered in the erosive loessial uplands of northern Mississippi. The program, initiated in 1984, is concerned with developing technology to stabilize streams, control upland and channel erosion, and rehabilitate watersheds. The project also contains an environmental component which evaluates standard and modified stream stabilization practices for stream rehabilitation and environmental enhancement. Results from this project are allowing federal and state watershed planners to view watershed management from a systems approach for the first time.

Technical Abstract: The drainage of highly erodible hill lands of northern Mississippi plunges into the Mississippi River alluvial plain. Since streams have no bed controls, channels have degraded 2-3 meters into the landscape and have set off massive bank failures, many times resulting in explosive channel widening. Headcuts, bank caving, and gully formation are common landscape features. The Demonstration Erosion Control (DEC) Project in the Yazoo Basin is a large-scale federal interagency demonstration and research project centered in the erodible loessial uplands of northern Mississippi. The project, initiated in 1984, is concerned with developing technology to stabilize streams, control upland and channel erosion, and rehabilitate watersheds. The project also contains an environmental component which evaluates standard and modified stream stabilization practices for stream rehabilitation and environmental enhancement. It is focused on 15 watersheds that range in size from 0.33 mi**2 to 613 mi**2 (0.89 to 1,590 km**2). Major participants include the USDA-National Sedimentation Laboratory, the Corps of Engineers, Vicksburg District, and Waterways Experiment Station, the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, and U. S. Geological Survey.