Pine Island Minnesota Flood Impact, Prevention, and Evacuation Study
Location
CSU Ballroom
Start Date
9-4-2012 10:00 AM
End Date
9-4-2012 11:30 AM
Student's Major
Mechanical and Civil Engineering
Student's College
Science, Engineering and Technology
Mentor's Name
Stephen Druschel
Mentor's Department
Mechanical and Civil Engineering
Mentor's College
Science, Engineering and Technology
Description
Pine Island Minnesota and the surrounding Zumbro Watershed incurred over 64 million dollars in flood damage during the September, 2010 flooding. Over ten inches of rain fell within 24 hours in some parts of the watershed. This combined with pre- saturated soils and well drained, karst geology resulted in multiple rivers flooding past bank full and damaging rural and urban communities. An area of focus and damage was Pine Island.
Rain and groundwater from the 250,000 acre watershed of Pine Island is transported to the community from the Middle Fork and North Branch Rivers. These rivers and their corresponding watershed were then isolated as the problem source and solution for controlling flooding. Resident protection could not be achieved through farmland tile management, as few tile lines exist in this part of the state due to steep geography and karst terrain. Levees were not considered a viable option either for protection due to a resultant increase in flow downstream. In order to protect residents and slow the flow of large surges of water to the community during large storm events a soil berm and controlled release outlet structure was designed upstream of Pine Island on the Middle Fork.
The river, flow, and berm implementation was modeled using ArcMap10.0, HEC-RAS 4.1, and AutoCAD. Lidar data was attained to model the ground, USGS regression flow information was attained to represent the flow, and geometric bridge data was used to calibrate the model.
Pine Island Minnesota Flood Impact, Prevention, and Evacuation Study
CSU Ballroom
Pine Island Minnesota and the surrounding Zumbro Watershed incurred over 64 million dollars in flood damage during the September, 2010 flooding. Over ten inches of rain fell within 24 hours in some parts of the watershed. This combined with pre- saturated soils and well drained, karst geology resulted in multiple rivers flooding past bank full and damaging rural and urban communities. An area of focus and damage was Pine Island.
Rain and groundwater from the 250,000 acre watershed of Pine Island is transported to the community from the Middle Fork and North Branch Rivers. These rivers and their corresponding watershed were then isolated as the problem source and solution for controlling flooding. Resident protection could not be achieved through farmland tile management, as few tile lines exist in this part of the state due to steep geography and karst terrain. Levees were not considered a viable option either for protection due to a resultant increase in flow downstream. In order to protect residents and slow the flow of large surges of water to the community during large storm events a soil berm and controlled release outlet structure was designed upstream of Pine Island on the Middle Fork.
The river, flow, and berm implementation was modeled using ArcMap10.0, HEC-RAS 4.1, and AutoCAD. Lidar data was attained to model the ground, USGS regression flow information was attained to represent the flow, and geometric bridge data was used to calibrate the model.
Recommended Citation
Sellner, Anthony; Joshua Stier; Cecilio Santana; Mitch Hatcher; and Michael Reimers. "Pine Island Minnesota Flood Impact, Prevention, and Evacuation Study." Undergraduate Research Symposium, Mankato, MN, April 9, 2012.
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/urs/2012/poster-session-A/39
