Kimberly M. Meitzen

• Texas State University

Green spaces and blue spaces in cities provide a wealth of benefits to the urban social–ecological system. Unfortunately, urban development fragments natural habitats, reducing connectivity and biodiversity. Urban green–blue infrastructure (UGI) networks can mitigate these effects by providing ecological corridors that enhance habitat connectivity....

We developed a floodplain inundation model to extract specific flood extent and depth parameters and combined these with vegetation land cover and historic flow data to quantify spatial habitat suitability and temporal hydrologic metrics that support Alligator Gar Atractosteus spatula spawning within a 257 km segment of the lower Guadalupe River, T...

This study examines spatial and temporal trends in Texas dams, dam failures, and dam removals. Dams were examined from a state-wide perspective and within 10 major river basins that collectively account for over 80% of all dams in the state. The state-scale and basin-scale analysis revealed similar patterns of dam occurrence, however there was grea...

Connectivity describes the efficiency of material transfer between geomorphic system components such as hillslopes and rivers or longitudinal segments within a river network. Representations of geomorphic systems as networks should recognize that the compartments, links, and nodes exhibit connectivity at differing scales. The historical underpinnin...

Geomorphology plays a fundamental role in shaping and maintaining landscapes, as well as influencing the social and ecological systems that occupy and utilize these landscapes. In turn, social-ecological systems can have a profound influence on geomorphic forms and processes. These interactions highlight the tightly coupled nature of geomorphic sys...

Lateral hydrologic connectivity between a river and its floodplain is important for exchanges of organisms and materials that support healthy, functioning riverine ecosystems. We use a GIS-based distance, cost-weighted spatial model to measure the possible pathways and travel durations for fish migrating from a mainstem river channel to ten differe...

The interaction of climate, geomorphology, and land use dictates catchment sediment production and associated river sediment loads. Accordingly, the resilience of catchments to disturbances can be assessed with suspended sediment regimes. This case study in the hill country of the lower North Island of New Zealand was a decade-long examination of t...

The Blanco River, which flows through the limestone Balcones Canyonlands of central Texas (USA), experienced catastrophic flooding in May 2015 that resulted in significant biogeomorphic disturbance to its riparian corridor. High-resolution aerial and satellite imagery from pre- and post-flooding for a 55-km reach of river were used to map and categ...

Applied geomorphology is a field of science where the research outcomes provide information geomorphic landforms or processes that may be of concern to society, and, where relevant, provides solutions to problems of geomorphic context. Applied geomorphology examines geomorphic impacts that affect society, as well as society's impact on geomorphic f...

Stream channels are scaled to the amount of water and sediment they convey. The amount and size of bed sediment, composition of bank material, type of channel vegetation (both riparian and in-stream), and valley morphology (slope and width) influence channel size and shape. Interactions and feedbacks among these six bio-hydro-geomorphic controls di...

Abandoned meanders are former river meanders cut-off from the active channel that occur in the floodplain in various stages of infilling. Their compositional diversity, ecological function, and persistence are highly variable in space and time. This study examines the spatial variability of vegetation dynamics, logging history, and hydrogeomorphic...

Geography is the study of the earth, including the physical environment, humans, natural and cultural places/regions, and the complex relationships among human-environment interactions. Geography is relevant to the environmental sciences for many reasons but particularly for its focus on distributions of various environmental- and human-related int...

This study examines changes in stream flow conditions across North Carolina, relates these changes to geomorphological conditions of rivers, and makes recommendations for environmental flow guidelines to conserve and protect riverine ecosystems. Monthly stream flow percentile metrics (90th, 75th, 50th, 25th, and 10th percentiles) are compared over...

The study of the interaction between fluvial processes and forest community patterns owes elements of its origins to the research of Shelford (1954) on the Mississippi River valley. Shelford (1954) is a classic for many reasons; three highlighted here are its role of establishing a methodology for applying historical resources for long-term researc...

An understanding of the factors controlling the permanent and episodic links between the main stem of a river and the ecosystems of its alluvial floodplain is necessary for evaluating the influence of modern river processes on floodplain ecology and habitat diversity and for the successful implementation of flow regimes that meet human needs for wa...

An understanding of the factors controlling the permanent and episodic links between the main stem of a river and the various waterbodies lying in its alluvial floodplain is critical for evaluating the influence of modern river processes on floodplain ecology and habitat diversity, and for the successful implementation of flow regimes that meet hum...

Successful management or restoration of southern floodplain forest ecosystems requires an understanding of how subtle changes in environmental conditions such as site hydroperiod affect species suitability as well as the importance of recruitment limitation. In this research, we examined the effects of elevation, modeled flood regime, soil conditio...

Lateral channel migration initiates complex and dynamic biogeomorphic responses that are fundamental to the creation and maintenance of riparian habitats along low-gradient, coastal plain rivers. This study examines the effects of lateral migration rates on the structure and composition of riparian forests along the Congaree River, Congaree Nationa...