FLOOD02337

• County: Statewide
• Community: State
• Stream Name: South Platte River
• Basin: South Platte
• Title: Geomorphic Assessment at Surveyed Cross-sections South Platte River
• Date: 6/1/1996
• Prepared For: UDFCD
• Prepared By: Michael Stevens
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Floodplain Report/Masterplan

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Figure 10.

Thirty-six-inch high stiff wire mesh protecting newly planted trees near the South
Platte River where there are beavers.

CLOSURE

Since monitoring of the South Platte River in the Denver metropolitan area began in 1986, the
following conclusions can be made concerning the morphology of the river at the annually
monitored 53 cross sections in the 41-mile reach.

. The severe degradation that occurred prior to 1986 is no longer to be found Gravel
mining is now limited to floodplain lands and not in the river bed.

. The river has remained stable for the most part, not degrading or aggrading its bed
significantly, nor eroding its banks but at a few locations

. The stability has been achieved in part by new grade-control structures placed across the
river and by protecting some more banks with rip rap or dumped concrete and asphalt
rubble. The river has been able to supply itself with new sediment from eroding banks,
and the new hydrologic regime established with the flood-control dams is less prone to
cause eroSIOn.

. As a result of the prolonged spring runoff in 1995, the river bed in the section of Urban
reach between Interstate 270 and 31 st Street degraded an average of approximately one