Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2006GA106B

Restoration of flood pulses to the lower Savannah River: responses of floodplain invertebrates and fish

Institute: Georgia
Year Established: 2006 Start Date: 2005-07-01 End Date: 2006-06-30
Total Federal Funds: $36,000 Total Non-Federal Funds: $72,110

Principal Investigators: Darold Batzer

Project Summary: The US Army Corps of Engineers is presently engaged in a comprehensive planning process for the Savannah river basin which seeks to identify a broad spectrum of objectives for future management of their facilities, and a better re-balancing of benefits among various interest groups. For instance, the Corps recognizes that their operation of dams on the Savannah for the last 50 years has caused notable degradation of ecosystem integrity. As part of the river basin planning process, the Corps and The Nature Conservancy (TNC) jointly facilitated a scientific process to develop an initial set of environmental flow recommendations. Subsequently, the Corps has agreed to pilot test some new operational scenarios that might help to restore the Savannahs river-floodplain-estuarine ecosystem. A key element of this pilot testing involves experimentally providing pulse flows of greater magnitude than those experienced during the last 50 years of dam regulation and flood management. TNC has provided seed monies to begin assessing responses of floodplain biota to pulse restoration. This proposal seeks funds to supplement invertebrate aspects of that research and expand it to assess interactions between invertebrates and fish. Costs for this proposal will be shared equally by TNC, NIWR, and the University of Georgia.