FLOOD04610

• County: Statewide
• Basin: Statewide
• Title: Overview of River-Floodplain Ecology in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
• Date: 12/9/1996
• Prepared By: USGS
• Floodplain - Doc Type: Educational/Technical/Reference Information

PREFACE

The Scientific Assessment and Strategy Team (SASn
was established by a directive of the White House on
November 24. 1993, in response to the major flooding in the
Midwestern United States in 1993, The SAST was charged
with providing scientific advice and assistance to officials
responsible for making decisions with respect to flood
recovery in the Upper Mississippi River Basin, and also
developing and providing information to support the deci-
sionmaking process regarding both nonstructural and struc-
tural approaches to river basin management. The team
consisted of senior scientists and engineers from the U.S.
Geological Survey, Federal Emergency Management
Agency, Natura) Resources Conservation Service, U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers. U.S_ Fish and Wildlife Service.
National Biological Service, Environmental Protection
Agency, and National Weather Service, When the inter-
agency Floodplain Management Review Committee
(FMRC) formed on January 10. 1994. the SAST became a
part of the FMRC for the duration of the FMRC activity, In
June 1994. when the FMRC disbanded. the SAST continued
conducting scientific analyses and building a data base of
scientific information to support the management of the
Upper Mississippi River Basin,
In order to meet its objectives. the SAST met at the
Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center
in Sioux Falls. South Dakota. where it conducted 10 weeks
of intensive activity in early 1994, There the team began
gathering data related to the 1993 floods and the Upper Mis-
sissippi River Basin in general. analyzed the effects of the
floods. and started examining issues pertaining to floodplain
and river basin management. Experts in ecology. hydrology.
hydraulics, geomorphology. and many other fields were
called upon to provide the team with information and data.
The preliminary results of this effort were provided to the
FMRC for inclusion in their report and were also published
in the SAST Preliminary Report, After March 1994, the
team members returned to their home offices and worked as
a distributed group in order to finish research, to develop a
data clearinghouse for the SAST data base. and to document
the significant amount of information provided to or devel~
oped by the team. The information is documented in this
multivolume report so that it will be available to resource
managers and researchers to improve the understanding and
management of river basins and floodplains. This report
reflects the enormous efforts of the team and of many other
people who contributed to the team's activities, As a series.
the report volumes contain a broad overview of the hydrol-
ogy. ecology, physiography, and geomorphology of the
Upper Mississippi River Basin and its floodplains. as well
as data on the impacts of the 1993 floods and implications
for future river basin and floodplain management.

There are five volumes in this report, which is entitled
Science for Floodplain Maoogement into the 21 st Century,
The volume names and contents have changed slightly since
the publication of Volume I and are as follows:

Volume I. Preliminary Report af the Scientific Assess-
ment and Strategy Team documents the general
scientific background and specific analyses pro-
vided to the FMRC for use in deliberations to
produce their Report of the Interagency Flood-
plain Management Review Committee to the
Administration Floodplain Management Task
Force. (The Prelimioory Repart is also consid-
ered Part V of the FMRC report.) It provides an
overall summary of SAST's findings and makes
recommendations for future analysis and data
needs.

Volume 2. Upper Mississippi River Basin Data Base and
Clearinghouse provides a detailed description
of the data and data base for users. This
includes samples of metadata. descriptions of
the strengths and weaknesses of the data. acqui-
sition methods. data maintenance plans, and
data distribution methods,

Volume 3. Overview af River-Flaodplain Ecalogy in the
Upper Mississippi River Basin contains a series
of papers commissioned by the SAST to pro-
vide background information about the ecology
of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. These
papers are being published to ensure that this
publicly funded analysis is readily available to
the public,

Volume 4. Selected Studies on Natural and Human Fac-
tars Related to Flaad Management in the
Upper Mississippi River Basin contains a series
of papers commissioned by the SAST to pro-
vide background information about the hydrol-
ogy and hydraulics of the Mississippi and
Missouri Rivers. These papers are being pub-
lished to ensure that this publicly funded analy-
sis is readily available to the public.

Volume 5. Proceedings af the Scientific Assessment and
Strategy Team Workshop on Hydrology, Eco/-
agy, and Hydraulics contains papers presented
by workshop speakers and selected discussions
by the workshop participants.

Additional reports and scientific papers documenting
the results of SAST analyses currently in progress will be
published in the scientific literature as they become
available.

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