No abstract

No abstract

Rivers were among the first geographical features in the United States (U.S.) to receive official names, often initially stemming from Native American heritage. Today river titles portray both cultural and physical origins. These naming conventions provide a descriptive connotation driven by social perceptions. At present, most people accept that the Mississippi River is the largest river and "mother river" in the U.S. Our investigation explored this river's prominence in the U.S. by identifying and comparing various hydrologic, biological, and cultural metrics. We used six variables to determine the magnitude of river importance: 30-year average discharge, length, drainage area, fish richness, fish endemism, and river-specific song lyrics. The Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio River Basins were evaluated using data from nine selected U.S. Geological Survey gaging stations and ranked using the six metrics. Using an average for the rankings across the three rivers, the Ohio is ranked highest for three individual metrics (discharge, fish richness, and fish endemism), and highest across the average for all six metrics, and for an average of five metrics, including hydrology and biodiversity metrics. Thus, our results suggest that the Ohio River could be considered the most prominent river in the U.S. and that the river itself should have the same name (Ohio or Mississippi) from New Orleans to at least Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.(KEY TERMS: Ohio River; Mississippi River; river name; river discharge; environmental metrics.)

The purpose of this article is to discuss the challenges and opportunities for integrating archaeological information in landscape-scale conservation design while aligning archaeological practice with design and planning focused on cultural resources. Targeting this opportunity begins with statewide archaeological databases. Here, we compare the structure and content of Pennsylvania's and Florida's statewide archaeological databases, identifying opportunities for leveraging these data in landscape conservation design and planning. The research discussed here was part of a broader project, which was working through the lens of Landscape Conservation Cooperatives in order to develop processes for integrating broadly conceived cultural resources with natural resources as part of multistate or regional landscape conservation design efforts. Landscape Conservation Cooperatives offer new ways to think about archaeological information in practice and potentially new ways for archaeology to contribute to design and planning. Statewide archaeological databases, in particular, offer transformative potential for integrating cultural resource priorities in landscape conservation design. Targeted coordination across state boundaries along with the development of accessible derivative databases are two priorities to advance their utility.