Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Date

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Earth Sciences

Committee Chair

Daniel Larsen

Committee Member

Deborah Leslie

Committee Member

Dorian Burnette

Abstract

Stream restoration was conducted by the West Tennessee River Basin Authority to restore flow and correct erosional problems in the Sandy Creek watershed, an urban site in western Tennessee. In this study, post-restoration water balance data of one year are compared pre-restoration water balance data of three years to understand the short-term effects of stream restoration on the recharge rate at the Sandy Creek watershed. Pre-restoration recharge rates for the three water budget years (Oct.-Sept.) were estimated as 0.529 m/m2 for 2017-2018, 0.682 m/m2 for 2018-2019, and 0.406 m/m2 for 2020-2021. Post-restoration recharge rates for 2021-2022 were estimated as 0.506 m/m2, despite being the driest year of the study. The water-table at a monitoring well in the watershed increased by 2.41 m in total from October 2017 to May 2022. These results suggest that stream restoration has improved recharge to the underlying Memphis aquifer, but more data are needed to confirm.

Comments

Data is provided by the student

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to ProQuest.

Notes

Open Access

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