Impacts of Flooding on Agricultural Lands

The Mississippi is heavily used for commercial navigation and recreation, which places a strain on the ecosystem. Forestry and agricultural practices have also had an impact. Harvesting the forests and converting prairies and forest to agriculture has significantly altered the watershed hydrology. Levees and locks and dams separate the river from half its floodplain. Pollutant levels in the river have increased. It's difficult to balance the Mississippi's multiple uses - for example, the need to maintain commercial traffic and to protect the region from floods must be balanced against concerns related to river/floodplain connectivity; sustainable agriculture, Gulf hypoxia,and the hydrologic balance.

University of Illinois soil scientist Ken Olson and his colleague, Lois Wright Morton, a sociologist from Iowa State University, have examined the effects of climate extremes including flooding and droughts in the Mississippi and Ohio River basins from many angles. They’ve co-authored several feature journal articles, some of which can be found below. They have also completed a book on the subject.

Managing Mississippi and Ohio River Landscapes explores the complex and ever-changing Mississippi and Ohio Rivers' landscapes and their systems. In this new century three major concerns have emerged: climate change and impacts, food insecurity, and homeland security including infrastructure, navigation, and water supplies. All three themes run throughout this book.

• Managing the Lower Mississippi River Landscape for Strategic Navigational and Flood Control
  Kenneth R. Olson, David R. Speidel
    
• Managing the Chao Phraya River and Delta in Bangkok, Thailand: Flood Control, Navigation and Land Subsidence Mitigation
  Kenneth R. Olson, William Kreznor
    
• Mississippi River Delta: Land Subsidence and Coastal Erosion
  Kenneth R. Olson, Cory D. Suski
    
• Cumberland River Resource Stewardship and Protection: Managing the Cumberland River and the Land Between the Lakes Landscapes
  Kenneth R. Olson
    
• Water Resources, Infrastructure Restoration, and Protection of the Upper Mississippi River Basin
  Kenneth R. Olson, Samuel J. Indorante, Gerald A. Miller
    
• Tennessee River Resource Stewardship and Protection: The Tennessee River Line Trail Project and Partnership
  Kenneth R. Olson
    
• The Danube, an Empire Boundary River: Settlements, Invasions, Navigation, and Trade Pathway
  Kenneth R. Olson and Edward Krug
    
• Sediment Delivery by the Yukon River to the Yukon Flats, Yukon Delta and the Bering Sea
  Kenneth R. Olson and James M. Lang
    
• St Lawrence Seaway: Eastern Great Lakes, the Niagara River and Welland Canal Replacement, Maintenance and Protection
  Kenneth R. Olson, Cory D. Suski
    
• St. Lawrence Seaway: Navigation on Gulf of Saint Lawrence Estuary and the St. Lawrence River
  Kenneth R. Olson, Cory D. Suski
    
• St. Lawrence Seaway: Western Great Lakes Basin
  Kenneth R. Olson and Gerald A. Miller
    
• How Did the Passaic River, a Superfund Site near Newark, New Jersey, Become an Agent Orange Dioxin TCDD Hotspot?
  Kenneth R. Olson and Mike Tharp
    
• Why Does the Repaired Len Small Levee, Alexander County, Illinois, US Continue to Breach during Major Flooding Events
  Kenneth R. Olson and David R. Speidel
    
• Settlement, development, despoilment, and recovery of the Hudson River, New York
  Lois Wright Morton and Kenneth R. Olson
    
• Corridor of migration, navigation, and innovation: The New York State Canal System
  Lois Wright Morton and Kenneth R. Olson
    
• Managing Pymatuning swampland in northwestern Pennsylvania: A personal story
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• Securing the nation’s infrastructure: The Ohio River
  Lois Wright Morton and Kenneth R. Olson
    
• Polders, dikes, canals, rice, and aquaculture in the Mekong Delta
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• The Pulses of the Mekong River Basin: Rivers and the Livelihoods of Farmers and Fishers
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• Tonle Sap Lake and River and confluence with the Mekong River in Cambodia
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• Water rights and fights: Lao dams on the Mekong River
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• Managing the upper Missouri River for agriculture, irrigation, flood control, and energy
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• Sedimentation, navigation, and agriculture on the lower Missouri River
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• Chicago's 132-year effort to provide safe drinking water
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• Agricultural Lands: Flooding and Levee Breaches
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• Mississippi River threatens to make Dogtooth Bend peninsula in Illinois an island
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• Managing Mississippi and Ohio River Landscapes
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• St. Johns Levee and Drainage District attempt to mitigate internal flooding
  Lois Wright Morton and Kenneth R. Olson
    
• Little River Drainage District conversion of Big Swamp to fertile agricultural land
  Kenneth R. Olson, Lois Wright Morton and David Speidel
    
• "Missouri Ozark Plateau Headwaters Diversion engineering feat"
  Kenneth R. Olson, Lois Wright Morton and David Speidel
    
• "Slurry trenches and relief wells installed to strengthen Ohio and Mississippi river levee systems"
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• "Sinkholes and sand boils during 2011 record flooding in Cairo, Illinois"
  Lois Wright Morton and Kenneth R. Olson
    
• "Impact of levee breaches, flooding, and land scouring on soil productivity"
  Kenneth Olson, Jeffrey Matthews, Lois Wright Morton and John Sloan
    
• "Addressing Soil Degradation and Flood Risk Decision Making in Levee Protected Agricultural Lands under Increasingly Variable Climate Conditions"
  Lois Wright Morton and Kenneth R. Olson
    
• "How Waterways, Glacial Melt Waters, and Earthquakes Re-aligned Ancient Rivers and Changed Illinois Borders"
  Kenneth R. Olson and Fred Christensen
    
• "Runaway barges damage Marseilles Lock and Dam during 2013 flood on the Illinois River"
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton 
  
  
• "Dredging of the fractured bedrock-lined Mississippi River Channel at Thebes, Illinois"
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton and in the March-April 2014 issue of Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 2014
    
• The 2011 Ohio River flooding of the Cache River Valley in southern Illinois
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• Impacts of 2011 Len Small levee breach on private and public Illinois lands, J. Soil and Water Conservation 2013; 68 89A-95A
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• Birds Point-New Madrid Floodway: Redesign, reconstruction and restoration
  Lois Wright Morton and Kenneth R. Olson
    
• Soil and Crop Damages as a Result of Levee Breaches on Ohio and Mississippi Rivers
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• Restoration of the 2011 flood damaged Birds Point-New Madrid floodway
  Kenneth R. Olson and Lois Wright Morton
    
• The Effects of 2011 Ohio and Mississippi River Valley Flooding on Cairo, Illinois, area
  Kenneth R. Olson, professor of soil science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    
• The impacts of 2011 induced levee breaches on agricultural lands of Mississippi River Valley
  Kenneth R. Olson, professor of soil science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    
• Multifunctional Mississippi River leveed bottomlands and settling basins: Sny Island Levee Drainage District
  Kenneth R. Olson, professor of soil science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    
• Impacts of 2008 flooding on agricultural lands in Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana 
  Kenneth R. Olson, professor of soil science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
    
• The 2008 Midwest flooding impact on soil erosion and water quality: Implications for soil erosion control practices
  Authored by joint task force from IA, IL, WI, and MN: Birl Lowery, Craig Cox, Dean Lemke, Pete Nowak, Ken Olson, and Jeff Strock