2026 CSDMS meeting-042
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Simulated Effects of Drainage-Ditch Infilling on Wetland Extent
Uma Ashrani,
University of Minnesota Minneapolis Minnesota, United States. ashra061@umn.edu
Andrew Wickert, University of Minnesota Minneapolis Minnesota, United States. awickert@umn.edu
Artificially constructed flow networks (drainage ditches) drain surface water to facilitate farming, but they reduce the area of natural wetlands that are critical for ecosystem health, water filtration, carbon storage, and flood protection. Motivated by case studies in wetland restoration, we aim to systematically model the effects of ditches on wetland extent while evaluating which ditches are protecting nearby infrastructure from inundation. We began by correcting drainage-ditch vector data to align with ditch channels in LiDAR topography, and we hydroconditioned this topography to permit flow continuity under bridges and through culverts. With these data products in hand, we developed methods in GIS to simulate damming ditches. These were applied to the ditch networks in the Minneopa Creek HUC10, located in southern Minnesota. Surface-water depth across the region was modeled using the RichDEM depression-filling algorithm, and was compared between the base case topography (no ditches dammed) and each infilling scenario (one ditch dammed at a time). This comparison allows us to isolate the impacts of each ditch by displaying where water depth would increase as a result of damming the ditch. Model results show that damming certain ditches would cause expansion of present-day water bodies in some cases and restoration of historic wetlands in others. These tools are intended to be used in restoration planning for any region with mapped ditches; the results of infilling a particular ditch can be overlaid with the present-day land use to determine whether infrastructure or farmland would be flooded. Additionally, pre-processing methods improve the accuracy of digitized ditch data and offer tools for hydroconditioning/digital culvert removal in DEMs.
