7 Jan 2022

Hydrodynamics in the Morganza Floodway and Atchafalaya Basin, Report 3: Phase 3; A Report for the US Army Corps of Engineers, MRG&P

Abstract: The Morganza Floodway and the Atchafalaya Basin, located in Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, were evaluated using a two-dimensional Adaptive Hydraulics model. Prior to this study, Phase 1 and 2 model studies were performed that indicated that the existing floodway may not be able to pass the Project Design Flood discharge of 600,000 cubic feet per second due to levee overtopping. In this study, all elevations of exterior and interior levees were updated with current crest elevations. In addition, the Phase 3 effort evaluated the sensitivity of the floodway’s flow capacity to variations in tree/vegetation density conditions. These adjustments in roughness will improve the understanding of the role of land cover characteristics in the simulated water surfaces. This study also provides a number of inundation maps corresponding to certain flows through the Morganza Control Structure.