Research by Associate Professor Ryan Morrison is featured in a science news article by Eos, the American Geophysical Union’s news outlet. The article describes a study co-authored by Morrison and Geology Professor Ellen Wohl that was led by Richard Knox from CSU’s Department of Geosciences, who was co-advised by Morrison. They found that the National Levee Database accounts for just one-fifth of the country’s total levee count.

The research team used machine learning to detect the artificial levees that are missing from the database. The study, “Identification of Artificial Levees in the Contiguous United States,” is published in Water Resources Research. Read the Eos article about this research here.

The trio also published a study that found artificial levees cause complex changes in river-floodplain connectivity and can increase flooded areas in some rivers. That paper, “A river ran through it: Floodplains as America’s newest relict landform,” is published in Science Advances.