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AcknowledgmentsThe author wishes to thank the many local, State, and Federal agencies that have cooperated in funding the operation and maintenance of the streamgages used for this study, especially the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-Louisville District. Special thanks are given to the Indiana Department of Transportation and the Illinois Department of Transportation for their cooperation, and especially to Kathryn Francis from the Indiana Department of Transportation for her assistance in ensuring a successful completion of the study. The author is also grateful to Jeremiah Lant from the U.S. Geological Survey for his work in processing the merged digital elevation model, and Valerie Stipe, a U.S. Geological Survey volunteer, for her assistance in editing the flood-inundation maps.
AbstractA two-dimensional hydraulic model and digital flood-inundation maps were developed for a 30-mile reach of the Wabash River near the Interstate 64 Bridge near Grayville, Illinois. The flood-inundation maps, which can be accessed through the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Flood Inundation Mapping Science web site at http://water.usgs.gov/osw/flood_ inundation/, depict estimates of the areal extent and depth of flooding corresponding to selected water levels (stages) at the USGS streamgage on the Wabash River at Mount Carmel, Ill (USGS station number 03377500). Near-real-time stages at this streamgage may be obtained on the internet from the USGS National Water Information System at http://waterdata. usgs.gov/ or the National Weather Service (NWS) Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service (AHPS) at http://water.weather. gov/ahps/, which also forecasts flood hydrographs at this site (NWS AHPS site MCRI2). The NWS AHPS forecasts peak stage information that may be used with the maps developed in this study to show predicted areas of flood inundation.Flood elevations were computed for the Wabash River reach by means of a two-dimensional, finite-volume numerical modeling application for river hydraulics. The hydraulic model was calibrated by using global positioning system measurements of water-surface elevation and the current stage-discharge relation at both USGS streamgage 03377500, Wabash River at Mount Carmel, Ill., and USGS streamgage 03378500, Wabash River at New Harmony, Indiana. The calibrated hydraulic model was then used to compute 27 water-surface elevations for...