Big Muddy Speaker Series presents:

Hydrologist Robb Jacobson discusses the engineering of both Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and their differences.

Hosted by Missouri River Relief 

Original Presentation Tuesday, July 11 at Shakespeare’s Pizza South, Columbia, MO.

Development trajectories of the Upper Mississippi and Lower Missouri Rivers were similar until the 1920’s when implementation of diesel towboats motivated improvements to navigation on both rivers. River slope and sediment supply determined the critical difference: locks and dams were constructed to create a series of navigation pools on Upper Mississippi River whereas the steep gradient and high sediment supply on the Missouri River prevented implementation of locks and dams, and instead motivated construction of a self-dredging navigation channel.

The result was an expansion of biophysical and recreational capacity of the Upper Mississippi and a contraction on the Missouri.  Subsequently, conservation objectives on the Upper Mississippi have been broadly defined by provision of diverse habitats whereas efforts on the Lower Missouri have been reductionist, eventually focusing on critical life-stage transitions of a single species, the pallid sturgeon.