Abstract:Hydrologic connectivity is fundamental to understanding floodplain processes along meandering river corridors. This study contributes to understanding hydrologic connectivity by utilizing a high resolution Light Detection and Ranging DEM with a new GIS-based approach for identifying the precise elevation of flood stage. The method created a high-resolution longitudinal channel bank profile, enabling a detailed examination of embanked floodplain hydrologic connectivity. A simple channel crosssection approach is likely to result in a large underestimation of floodplain inundation and hydrologic connectivity along meandering river floodplains because of differences in the elevation of the natural levee surface relative to floodplain bottoms and the considerable variability in the elevation of the channel bank profile. There is a large disparity in discharge duration associated with floodplain inundation in comparison to river channel bank inundation. A discharge duration of 10% is associated with inundation of 87% of the floodplain surface whereas only 53% of the channel bank profile is overtopped. An apparent threshold in inundation occurs as the discharge duration decreases below about 35%. While a duration of 25% results in very little of the channel bank being overtopped, it inundates 50% of the floodplain surface. Floodplain borrow pits, which are created in association with dike construction, represent a constant anthropogenic influence on the lower Mississippi embanked floodplain morphology, and are inundated by low discharge magnitudes. The results of the investigation shed new light on the topic of hydrologic connectivity for an important embanked fluvial system that has previously received little attention concerning its physical floodplain processes.

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