The Riverscapes Inundation Mapper Tool, or RIM, was developed as part of Karen Barelt’s Thesis (Bartelt et al. 2021) to aid in the efficient mapping of structurally forced inundation patterns in beaver impacted riverscapes.
The contrast in inundation patterns and types in undammed (top) and dammed (bottom) situations, across dramatically different riverscape settings (left to right) produces a strikingly similar impact. That is, at the same baseflows, inundation is increased from 2 to 7 fold with a greater diversity of flow types (i.e. more ponded and overflow areas instead of just free flowing).
View or Download Projects A Riverscapes Consortium Tool
RIM 0.1.0 as published here, is a BETA research-grade tool. It is a mix of Python and R with ArcPY dependencies. It has been successfully deployed by others, but is finicky to deploy.
Development of RIM has shifted from its own ArcToolbox into a Protocol implemented as part of data capture events in Riverscapes Studio for QGIS or QRiS thanks to support from the USFS and NOAA.
The types of beaver dam building activity impacting riverscapes that RIM was designed to capture and distill:
References
- Bartelt K. 2021. Valley Bottom Inundation Patterns in Beaver-Modified Streams: A Potential Proxy for Hydrologic Inefficiency, Masters Thesis, Utah State University: Logan, UT. Available from: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/8226. DOI: 10.26076/a66b-0708.