1 / 45

The Nelson River Drainage Basin

The Nelson River Drainage Basin. Craig Christensen Julie Nitsche Olsen Astrid Mathilda Arvidson. Contents. Profile of the Nelson River Drainage Basin Water Resources and T heir Usage in Western Canada Challenges in River Management. Profile of the Nelson River Drainage Basin.

lynda
Download Presentation

The Nelson River Drainage Basin

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. The Nelson River Drainage Basin Craig Christensen Julie Nitsche Olsen Astrid MathildaArvidson

  2. Contents • Profile of the Nelson River Drainage Basin • Water Resources and Their Usage in Western Canada • Challenges in River Management

  3. Profile of the Nelson River Drainage Basin Part One

  4. Where?

  5. Basic Statistics

  6. Major Tributaries of the Nelson River

  7. Statistics for Major Tributaries

  8. Factors Affecting The River Basin • Climate • More arid in southern regions • Majority of precipitation in summer months • Over 5 months of daily mean temperature below freezing allows for build-up of snow • Southern regions thaw sooner than larger. The Nelson river and the Red River both flow from South to North, meaning snow and ice build up can cause flooding.

  9. Factors Affecting The River Basin • Topography of the Basin • Rocky Mountains • Topography of the Praries • Glaciers created a flat, undulating landscape • Deep soils • Drainage pattern in Dendritic • Groundwater Sources • 3 different levels of the prairies

  10. The composition of the Long Profile • Short Upper Course • The Saskatchewan River experience a rapid fall in altitude near their source (beginning at over 1900m at glacial sources) • Extended middle course • Rivers meander gently across prairies • No upper course proper in the Red River North • From source to base level, there is only 1m fall per 5km of river length • No river gorge or flood plain due to low erosion rates • Very prone to flooding.

  11. Bow Glacier Source of one of the tributaries to the South Saskatchewan River

  12. North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton, Alberta Notice the asymmetrical meandering

  13. Confluence of the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers Notice the formation of more symmetrical meanders, and the high angle of incidence of the two channels. This is an indication of the slowing speed of the river.

  14. The Red River The Red River lacks a river valley , cause by a low gradient and slow erosion rates

  15. Assiniboine River Notice the steeper sides of the River

  16. Fluvial features • Lake Winnipeg • Source of the Nelson River • 11th largest lake in the World • Winnipeg, capital of the province of Manitoba, lies at its southern shore. • Fifth largest lake in Canada, but still very shallow due to the deposition of material in it. • Mean depth of only 12m • Well know for many sandy beaches.

  17. Winnipeg Beach, Manitoba One of the beaches along the shores of Lake Manitoba

  18. Nelson River Mouth • Mesotidal Estuary • Mesotidal: “coastal ocean or waterway with a moderate mean tidal range (i.e. 2m to 4m)” • (Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ) • Hudson’s Bay is frozen most of the year • Sediment form river has different aldebo, speeding up sea ice melting

  19. Mouth of the Nelson River

  20. Sources • http://www.ags.gov.ab.ca/publications/wcsb_atlas/A_CH26/CH_26.html • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_River • http://earthtrends.wri.org/maps_spatial/maps_fullscale.php?mapID=395&theme=2 • http://www.salinesystems.org/content/figures/1746-1448-1-10-2-l.jpg • http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/1000/1821/HudsonBay.A2001138.1720lrg.jpg • http://www.wildernessspirit.com/assiniboine%20river%20L.jpg

  21. Water Resources and Their Usage in Western Canada Part Two

  22. Main usages • Irrigation • Idustry (oil) • Hydro-electricpower • Drinking water

  23. Irrigation • 5000 km2< irrigatedof South Saskatchewan River drainagebasinannualy

  24. Oil industry Must separate sand bitumen

  25. Oil industry • No clearquantitative data • Enviromentalists makes claims • Groundwaterdecreasing • ½ ofnaturalflow must enter Saskatchewan

  26. Hydro-electricpower

  27. Hydro-electricpower • Lake Winnipeg 3rd largestresevoirglobally • Finalized 1979 • Large surface area (24514km2)waterleveldoes not changemuch • 23.3TWh annualy in Nelson River • Complaints from localowners • Operator: Manitoba Hydro • WorriesaboutCree (Churchill River)

  28. Sources • http://www.safewater.org/PDFS/resourcesknowthefacts/Cdn_Prairie_Drink_Water.pdf • http://www.sicc.sk.ca/saskindian/a77mar07.htm • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_River_Hydroelectric_Project • http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7111/is_3_33/ai_n32067867/ • http://www.albertawater.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=80&Itemid=78 • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Winnipeg • Craig William Christensen’s presentation about “Athabasca Tar Sands”

  29. Challenges in Management • CASE STUDY : • Floodprone area • 1950, 1997, 2009 • Red River of the North • Dakotas and Manitoba

  30. Flood in May 1950 • Causes: heavy precipitation in winter/spring • 100 000 peopleevacuated • 6 peopledead • Damage: 600 – 1000 million CAD • Worstdamaged: Winnipeg

  31. Result • Red River Floodway • 1962 - 1972 • 73.5 million m³ earth • 47 km channel • 63 million CAD • Savedestimated 10 billion CAD in potential damages

  32. Red River Floodway

  33. Flood in April and May 1997 • ”The Flood of the Century” • 12 m abovewinterlevels • 5 km inland • 1820 km² inunded • Grand Forks & East Grand Forks • 500 million CAD in damages • Winnipeg saved by RRF

  34. St. Agathe 1997

  35. Brunkild Dike

  36. Flood in 2009 • Causes: • High wintersnowfall • High temperaturesnowmelt rate • Rainstorm on March 22 -25 (20 cm) of ppt • Ice jams

  37. Volunteereffortsreducedamage • Sandbagging • 2 million bags • Salvationarmy • Ring dikes • Red River Floodway

  38. Fargo-Moorhead 2009

  39. Fargo-Moorhead 2009

  40. Sum up of ManitobanFlood Management Plan • Red River Floodway • In 2003, the province announced plans to expand the Floodway, increasing its flow capacity from 2,550 m³/s to 4,000 m³/s. It was decided to widen the Floodway as opposed to deepening it because of the soil and ground conditions in the area. • Ring dikes aroundcommunities • Shellmouthreservoir • Promotion of non-structuralplanning: • Emergency preparation • Floodproofing • Land regulation

  41. Fun stuff to end with • The Last Saskatchewan Pirate • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G_L9tXEwmc • http://artists.letssingit.com/arrogant-worms-lyrics-the-last-saskatchewan-pirate-c73bzxw • Norway House, Manitoba • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway_House

  42. Sources • http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0011336 • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_River_Floodway • http://watertreatment.ca/2009/manitobas-flood-management/ • http://www.apfm.info/pdf/case_studies/canada.pdf • http://www.syntexgeo.com/images/a_newimages_may08/_400pixels/bag%20drop_400.gif • http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/images/redriver.jpg • http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/customcode/TCEMediaPopup.cfm?Language=E&ArticleID=M0011336&MediaID=6063&TB_iframe=true&height=612&width=885&modal=true • www.ndsu.edu/fargo_geology/fldphotos2009.htm

More Related