Featured Research Projects at The Ohio State University

Contact: Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering (FABE), The Ohio State University, 590 Woody Hayes Drive, Columbus, Ohio 43210

Phone: 614.688.4438, Fax: 614.292.9448. E-mail: dambrosio.9@osu.edu

Olentangy River Watershed Implementation Project

Project Overview: The overall goal of this project is to assist the ODNR Division of Soil and Water Conservation (DSWC) with the monitoring and reporting of stream protection and restoration efforts in the Upper Olentangy River watershed, a sub-basin of the Upper Scioto River watershed (HUC 05060001). These efforts will be conducted in concert with the Scioto River Conservation Reserve Enhancement Project (CREP), local watershed planning and conservation programs. 

The project team will collect and analyze baseline data for the project site, implement an alternative best management practice (BMP) at the site, and monitor the benefits/impacts of the alternative BMP to geomorphology, biology, water chemistry of the BMP alone and with a combination of other BMPs such as grassed waterways, buffer strips, and controlled drainage management. We also will compare the alternative BMP in a predominantly agricultural landscape to the same practice in highly urbanized landscapes and to constructed “natural channels” within the Upper Scioto Basin to determine its performance under different land uses.

The implementation phase of this project includes three treatments: 1) a currently un-maintained agricultural drainage ditch that will act as the baseline condition; 2) a ditch under traditional maintenance and/or clean-out practice that will act as a “control” site; and 3) an alternative maintenance practice, a constructed over-wide ditch, that will be the alternative BMP. We anticipate that the proposed project will provide needed integration of geomorphology, hydrology, biology, and water chemistry to watershed-scale guidance for management of the Upper Scioto sub-watersheds, in particular, the Upper Olentangy River watersheds.  

Funding Sources: Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Soil and Water Conservation, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, United States Environmental Protection Agency Region 5.

Related Publications:

Understanding Ecological Processes in Channelized Headwater Systems is a Key to Ecosystem Protection while Maintaining Crop Production

Investigators: Andy Ward, Lance Williams, Marsha Williams, Ed Herricks, David Allan, Jennifer Janssen

Project Overview: An interdisciplinary and multi-institutional team of scientists and engineers located at the University of Illinois, University of Michigan, and The Ohio State University will study channel systems in watersheds that are important to the region and discharge to the Great Lakes or the Gulf of Mexico (U.S. EPA 2003; Goal 4, Objective 4.3). The study will build on knowledge, primarily based on work conducted by members of our research team, that suggests: (1) the development of fluvial features in agricultural channels is predictable; (2) the capacity to sustain ecosystems in modified and constructed channel systems is more a function of the fluvial features and vegetation within the channels and their connectivity or proximity to the nearest “good” habitat or population source, than the land use management practices along the top of the banks of these systems; and (3) existing maintenance practices that disrupt the successional development of channel ecosystems have a yet to be quantified impact on water quality and ecology. We anticipate that the proposed study will provide needed integration of geomorphology, hydrology and ecology to provide reach to watershed scale guidance for management of watersheds dominated by agricultural land use.

Funding Sources: United States Environmental Protection Agency Regional Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program

Related Publications:

Water Quality, Geomorphology, and Aquatic Life Assessments for the Olentangy River TMDL Evaluation

Investigators: Andy Ward, Jon Witter, Lance Williams, Jessica D'Ambrosio, Kevin King

Project Overview:

Funding Sources: Ohio Environmental Protection Agency

Related Publications:

Wayne National Forest Monitoring

Investigators: Lance Williams, Andy Ward, Anand Jayakaran, Jessica D'Ambrosio, Marsha Williams

Project Overview:

Funding Sources: USDA-Forest Service

Related Publications:

Upper Olentangy River Management Plan

Investigators: Larry Brown, Jon Witter

Project Overview:

Funding Sources: Ohio Environmental Protection Agency

Related Publications:

Examination, Application, and Evaluation of Geomorphic Principles and Resulting Water Quality in Midwest Agricultural Streams and Rivers

Investigators: George Erick Powell, Andrew D. Ward, Larry C. Brown, Virginie Bouchard, Lance R. Williams

Project Overview: This dissertation contains research designed to evaluate geomorphic principles, predominately channel-forming discharges, and their application and performance in agriculturally dominated headwater streams.

Funding Sources: The Great Lakes Protection Fund, USDA, EPA Nutrient Science for Improved Watershed Management Program

Related Publications: