Onondaga Creek Restoration Feasibility Study
General Background:
In transforming their streams into flood conveyance systems, many US municipalities have simultaneously degraded social and ecological stream function. This proposed work, which studies the Syracuse, New York section of Onondaga Creek in the area of lower Onondaga Park, focuses on developing methods to improve social and ecological stream function while maintaining flood conveyance. The requested funding of from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development is for feasibility investigation of water infrastructure improvements on this portion of Onondaga Creek. The funding will support coupled watershed and stream corridor restoration feasibility investigations in terms of opportunities and constraints. Criteria for feasibility include a) maintenance of acceptable flood conveyance and risk, b) improvement of stream water quality and aquatic habitat, and c) enhancement of riparian structure and function.
Methods for these feasibility studies will include site visits, data analysis, and simulation modeling of both channel and watershed features. Outcomes will include maps of the most restorable reaches, inventories of the infrastructure constraints to restoration, engineering diagrams of restoration design, and proposal of the next steps for implementing restoration. The photo image above is a NYS DOQQ Images of downtown Syracuse Section. The image on left is furthest downstream, while the image in bottom right contains the proposed restoration area, where the red false color image indicates green grass and parkland. The lake in the upper right image is Lake Hiawatha.
ESF Principal Investigators & Team:
- Dr. Ted Endreny, PH, PE
- Dr. Don Leopold
- Virginia Collins
- Darin DeKoskie, EIT (graduated)
- Michael Higgins, EIT
- Steve Coghlin
- Jessica Black
- Emera Bridger
- Many other helpful students!
Beyond this small group are numerous other faculty, such as Neil Ringler, Jim Hassett, Karin Limburg, John Hassett, Emanual Carter, and others that provide separate, complimentary research projects on the Creek corridor. To continue, this restoration feasibility study will only make significant contributions by borrowing from and building on background research conducted on the Onondaga Creek corridor and watershed. Some of these historical and current reports and researchers include the Report on Onondaga Creek Flood Prevention (1927), the USACE Onondaga Creek Dam and Reservoir Report (1987), the C&S Onondaga Creek Investigation and Improvement Program Report (1990), the Stearns and Wheeler – EcoLogic - Onondaga County supported Onondaga Lake Monitoring Program Annual Reports (present), the Moffa and Associates Stormwater Simulation of Onondaga Creek (present), the USGS Fact Sheets on Onondaga Creek (present), the ESF M.S. and Ph.D. research on Onondaga Creek, the Upstate Freshwater Institute research on Onondaga Creek (present), the Onondaga Lake Cleanup Corp research on Onondaga Creek, the Onondaga Nation research and management of Onondaga Creek, the USEPA sponsored programs, NYS DEC sponsored programs, the NASA Affiliated Research Center programs, the Atlantic States programs, and countless more.
Sponsorship:
This project requires planning and diplomacy at the level beyond the university research center, and we acknowledge the interest and support provided by Congressman James T. Walsh along with the US Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Economics Development Initiative Program.
Creek Restoration:
Numerous projects have been completed and are underway worldwide on rural stream restoration. Urban stream restoration is a more recent emphasis. We are not endorsing any blanket approach for such restoration, but have found that a blend of hydraulic engineering, fluvial geomorphologic measurement and analysis, as well as emperical regional assessment delivers an ecologically funcational system. Some images of our work are located below.
Links for 2D and 3D software:
Lectures, Training & Visits on Restoration
In summary, the experts agree, Onondaga Creek can be restored to a more ecologically functional system while maintaining flood conveyance functions. Most important in this project is the coupling of sound ecological engineering and community participation.
- 1st National Ecosystem Restoration Conference, Lake Buena Vista, FL December 2004 presentation. See San Antonio USACE project for novel ideas.
- Ann Riley and Colleagues, Director of Waterways Restoration Institute, author of Restoring Streams in Cities published by Island Press and Director of numerous urban creek restoration projects, is scheduled to tour the Creek and lecture in the fall of 2003.
- David Rosgen, of Wildland Hydrology, trained Creek team members in the summer of 2003 in the USFS National Conservation Training Center, Shepherdstown, WV.
- Jeff Shoemaker of the project to restore the South Platte River in Denver, CO and linked with the South Platte River Initiative. A separate project is (reported by Ben Urbonas)
- James MacBroom, Vice President, Water Resource and Environmental Engineering Milone & MacBroom, Inc., Cheshire, CT and Visiting Instructor in Hydrologic Topics, Yale University, New Haven, CT tours the Creek and lectures on Restoration Opportunities and Constraints along Onondaga Creek’s Urban Reaches: A Preliminary Assessment on March 25th, 2002 at ESF
- Tinicum Marsh & Cobbs Creek, Philadelphia, in the October 2002.
Left Map: Gridded Elevation Map of watershed.
Center Map: Land Cover Map of watershed showing the green urban area of downtown Syracuse
Right Map: Streets and roads throughout the watershed, many of which cross and border the streams.
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