Date of Award

5-2023

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.E.

Degree Program

Civil Engineering

Department

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Major Professor

Bastola, Satish

Second Advisor

Cothren, Gianna

Third Advisor

Forster-Martinez, Madeline

Abstract

The Mississippi River Basin is the United States’ largest watershed and consists of many subbasins. Each subbasin has hydrological processes including flow rate, evapotranspiration, and groundwater flow. It is important to understand how these processes change through shifts in weather, time, and land use. This study uses the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to predict how changes in temperature, rainfall, and land use can change hydrological processes responses. This study concludes that, for the studied subbasin, a high representative concentration pathway (RCP) will result in lower flow rates and ground water flow as well as higher evapotranspiration by the year 2080. Additionally, as this area becomes urbanized, the average flow rate can be expected to increase by 3.07cms with 106.12cms higher peak flow, the evapotranspiration can be expected to have a peak flow of 1.01mm/day higher, and the average ground water can be expected to drop by 0.85mm/day.

Rights

The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.

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