Stream Basics
What happens to sediment when water slows down?
Answer: What is it gets deposited?
What is a flood?
Answer: What is water overflowing its normal channel?
What is a meander?
Answer: What is a curve or bend in a river?
What structure is built to prevent rivers from flooding?
What structure is built to prevent rivers from flooding?
What does “cfs” stand for in discharge measurements?
Answer: What is cubic feet per second?
What does discharge measure in a stream?
Answer: What is the volume of water flowing past a point per unit time?
What type of flood is caused by intense rainfall in a short time?
Answer: What is a flash flood?
What forms when a meander is cut off from the main river?
Answer: What is an oxbow lake?
What is one danger of levees?
Answer: What is they can fail and increase flood damage?
If a stream has an area of 50 ft² and velocity of 4 ft/s, what is the discharge?
Answer: What is 200 cfs?
What is the formula for discharge?
Answer: What is Q = A × V?
What kind of flood occurs in large drainage basins over long durations?
Answer: What is a downstream flood?
What is a floodplain?
Answer: What is the flat area around a river that floods?
What happens when we channelize a river?
Answer: What is it speeds up water and increases erosion?
What does a recurrence interval of 100 years mean?
Answer: What is a 1% chance of occurring in any year?
What is the lowest elevation a river can erode to?
Answer: What is base level?
What is the probability of a 25-year flood occurring in any given year?
Answer: What is 4%?
What are natural levees?
Answer: What are ridges of sediment built up along riverbanks?
Why do people still live in floodplains?
Answer: What is fertile land, scenic views, or lack of awareness?
What causes higher floods in urban areas?
Answer: What is increased surface runoff from impervious surfaces?
What happens to stream velocity in a narrow channel?
Answer: What is it increases?
What is the problem with the term “100-year flood”?
Answer: What is it falsely implies it only happens once every 100 years?
What is a braided stream?
Answer: What is a stream with multiple channels and high sediment load?
What happened in Cairo, Illinois, in 2011 to prevent flooding?
Answer: What is levees were blown up to save the town?
Why did the Mississippi River crest higher in 1993 than in 1903, despite the same discharge?
Answer: What is changes in levees and channel shape?