Kirk R. Vincent

An integrated approach to flood hazard assessment on alluvial fans using numerical modeling, field mapping, and remote sensing

Millions of people in the western United States live near the dynamic, distributary channel networks of alluvial fans where flood behavior is complex and poorly constrained. Here we test a new comprehensive approach to alluvial-fan flood hazard assessment that uses four complementary methods: two-dimensional raster-based hydraulic modeling, satellite-image change detection, field-based mapping of recent flood inundation, and surficial geologic mapping. Each of these methods provides spatial detail lacking in the standard method and each provides critical information for a comprehensive assessment. Our numerical model simultaneously solves the continuity equation and Mannings equation (Chow, 1959) using an implicit numerical method. It provides a robust numerical tool for predicting flood flows using the large, high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) necessary to resolve the numerous small channels on the typical alluvial fan. Inundation extents and flow depths of historic floods can be reconstructed with the numerical model and validated against field- and satellite-based flood maps. A probabilistic flood hazard map can also be constructed by modeling multiple flood events with a range of specified discharges. This map can be used in conjunction with a surficial geologic map to further refine floodplain delineation on fans. To test the accuracy of the numerical model, we compared model predictions of flood inundation and flow depths against field- and satellite-based flood maps for two recent extreme events on the southern Tortolita and Harquahala piedmonts in Arizona. Model predictions match the field- and satellite-based maps closely. Probabilistic flood hazard maps based on the 10 yr, 100 yr, and maximum floods were also constructed for the study areas using stream gage records and paleoflood deposits. The resulting maps predict spatially complex flood hazards that strongly reflect small-scale topography and are consistent with surficial geology. In contrast, FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) based on the FAN model predict uniformly high flood risk across the study areas without regard for small-scale topography and surficial geology.

Processes of arroyo filling in northern New Mexico, USA

We documented arroyo evolution at the tree, trench, and arroyo scales along the lower Rio Puerco and Chaco Wash in northern New Mexico, USA. We excavated 29 buried living woody plants and used burial signatures in their annual rings to date stratigraphy in four trenches across the arroyos. Then, we reconstructed the history of arroyo evolution by combining trench data with arroyo-scale information from aerial imagery, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), longitudinal profiles, and repeat surveys of cross sections. Burial signatures in annual rings of salt cedar and willow dated sedimentary beds greater than 30 cm thick with annual precision. Along both arroyos, incision occurred until the 1930s in association with extreme high flows, and subsequent filling involved vegetation development, channel narrowing, increased sinuosity, and finally vertical aggradation. A strongly depositional sediment transport regime interacted with floodplain shrubs to produce a characteristic narrow, trapezoidal channel. The 55 km study reach along the Rio Puerco demonstrated upstream progression of arroyo widening and filling, but not of arroyo incision, channel narrowing, or floodplain vegetation development. We conclude that the occurrence of upstream progression within large basins like the Rio Puerco makes precise synchrony across basins impossible. Arroyo wall retreat is now mostly limited to locations where meanders impinge on the arroyo wall, forming hairpin bends, for which entry to and exit from the wall are stationary. Average annual sediment storage within the Rio Puerco study reach between 1955 and 2005 was 4.8 × 10 5 t/yr, 16% of the average annual suspended sediment yield, and 24% of the long-term bedrock denudation rate. At this rate, the arroyo would fill in 310 yr.

Rapid natural acid weathering, physical erosion, and debris-flow hazards in scar areas developed on hydrothermally-altered rocks along the Red River Valley near Questa, New Mexico, USA

In southern Rocky Mountains, catchments characterized by acidic, metalliferous waters that are relatively unaffected by human activity usually occur within areas that have active or historical mining activity. The US Geological Survey has utilized these mineralized but unmined catchments to constrain geochemical processes that control the surfaceand ground-water chemistry associated with near surface acid weathering as well as to estimate premining conditions. Study areas include the upper Animas River watershed, Lake City, Mt. Emmons, and Montezuma in Colorado and Questa in New Mexico. Although host-rock lithologies range from Precambrian gneisses to Cretaceous sedimentary units to Tertiary volcanic complexes, mineralization is Tertiary in age and associated with intermediate to felsic composition, porphyritic plutons. Pyrite is ubiquitous. Variability of metal concentrations in water is caused by two main factors: mineralogy and hydrology. Parameters that potentially affect water chemistry include: host-rock lithology, intensity of hydrothermal alteration, sulfide mineralogy and chemistry, gangue mineralogy, length of flow path, precipitation, evaporation, and redox conditions. Springs and headwater streams have pH values as low as 2.5, sulfate up to 3700 mg/L and high dissolved metal concentrations (for example: A1 up to 170 rag/L; Fe up to 250 mg/L; Cu up to 3.5 mg/L and Zn up to 14 mg/L). With the exception of evaporative waters, the lowest pH values and highest Fe and A1 concentrations occur in water draining the most intense hydrothermally altered areas consisting of the mineral assemblage quartz-sericite-pyrite. Stream beds tend to be coated with iron floc, and some reaches are underlain by ferricrete. When iron-rich ground water interacts with oxygenated waters in the stream or hyporheic zone, ferrous iron is oxidized to ferric iron, which is less soluble, leading to the precipitation of iron oxyhydroxides. Ground-water wells have been drilled and sampled in two unmined, alpine catchments to characterize constituent concentrations, to identify hydrogeochemical processes controlling constituent concentrations, to determine rock hydraulic properties, and to delineate flow paths. By using an integrated approach to investigating surface and ground waters in these acidic catchments a more complete understanding of the hydrogeologic framework is gained.

Chaco Canyon 1930s and 2000 geospatial data

A study of arroyo evolution in northern New Mexico (Friedman and others, 2015) assessed geomorphic change in the Chaco Wash arroyo from the 1930s to 2000. As part of this study, in October 2000 a trench was excavated across the arroyo bottom and a high-precision (Real-time kinematic) GPS survey was conducted. GPS survey data were used to georeference a 1930s topographic map and to identify key geomorphic features, including the tops of the arroyo walls and the channel thalweg. Linear features were mapped in a GIS for use in extracting channel thalweg profiles, an arroyo cross section, and arroyo widths (1930s and 2000) as a function of distance down-valley. These features have been converted to shapefiles included in the set of mapped features. Results from analyses using these data were presented in: Friedman, J.M., Vincent, K.R., Griffin, E.R., Scott, M.L., Shafroth, P.B., and Auble, G.T., 2015, Processes of arroyo filling in northern New Mexico, USA, GSA Bulletin, 127(3/4), 621-640. doi: 10.1130/B31046.1