Bridge out! Rillito Creek, Tucson, AZ 1983

Torrential rains of 1983 damaged roads, bridges homes and buildings as this image by Peter Kresan shows so clearly. To inform flood-plain management, Maria Pearthree and Vic Baker documented changes in Rillito Creek from 1941 to 1983 - citation and link below. From there 66-page, illustrated report, " Lateral bank erosion and channel instability along the ephemeral streams of the Rillito Creek system have posed greater hazards to the Tucson metropolitan area than has overbank flooding. The historical behavior of this alluvial stream system has been investigated to document and evaluate past channel variability, determine potential sites of bank erosion and lateral channel migration, and suggest flood-plain management alternatives to Federal regulations currently applied to semiarid regions. Rillito Creek and its main tributaries, Pantano Wash and Tanque Verde Creek, were mapped from Houghton Road to the mouth of Rillito Creek using aerial photographs taken between 1941 and 1983." Online resources: Pearthree, M.S. and Baker, V.R., 1987, Channel Change Along the Rillito Creek System of Southeastern Arizona, 1941 Through 1983; Implications for Flood-Plain Management. Arizona Geological Survey Special Paper 6, 58 p., scale 1:24,000 http://repository.azgs.az.gov/uri_gin/azgs/dlio/1654