University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Headwaters area assessment

Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Office of Scientific Research and Analysis

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/13883

Description

Title
Headwaters area assessment
Author(s)
Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Office of Scientific Research and Analysis
Contributor(s)
Illinois Department of Natural Resources, State Geological Survey Division
Issue Date
1997
Keyword(s)
  • Ecosystem management --Illinois
  • Sustainable development --Illinois
  • Natural resources conservation areas --Illinois
Geographic Coverage
Illinois
Abstract
"The Headwaters assessment area (HAA) is an approximately 1,675 mile2 (I ,072,202 acre) area including much ofChampaign County and portions ofFord, Livingston, McLean, Iroquois, Vermilion, Douglas, Piatt, and De Witt counties in central Illinois. This area includes the headwaters of the Sangamon and Embarras rivers and the watersheds of the Middle Fork and Salt Fork in the headwaters of the Vermilion River. The HAA is composed of32 subbasins from these three major drainage basins2 These include 24 subbasins in the Vermilion (Wabash) drainage basin, five subbasins in the Upper Sangamon basin, and three in the Embarras/Middle Wabash basin. Two ofthese subbasins the Middle Fork Vermilion River and Embarras River subbasins, were designated as ""Resource Rich Areas"" (Suloway et al. 1996)3 because they contain significant natural community diversity. Ecological conditions in the HAA are particularly important to a large region ofIllinois because land use practices affecting stream quality in the HAA can have environmental consequences reaching far downstream from the headwaters region. This assessment is comprised offive volumes. In Volume 1, Geology discusses the geology, soils, and minerals in the assessment area. Volume 2, Water Resources, discusses the surface and groundwater resources and Volume 3, Living Resources, describes the natural vegetation communities and the fauna of the region. Volume 4 contains three parts: Part I, Socio-Economic Profile, discusses the demographics, infrastructure, and economy of the area, focusing on the two counties with the greatest amount ofland in the area --Champaign and Ford counties; Part II, Environmental Quality, discusses air and water quality, and hazardous and toxic waste generation and management in the area; and Part III, Archaeological Resources, identifies and assesses the archaeological sites, ranging from the Paleoindian Prehistoric (B.c. 10,000) to the Historic (A.D. 1650), known in the assessment watershed. Volume 5, Early Accounts of the Ecology ofthe Headwaters Area, describes the ecology ofthe area as recorded by historical writings of explorers, pioneers, early visitors and early historians."
Publisher
Illinois Dept. of Natural Resources
Series/Report Name or Number
Critical Trends Assessment Program
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/13883
Copyright and License Information
These documents are a product of the Illinois state scientific surveys and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, and has been selected and made available by the Institute of Natural Resource Sustainability, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They are intended solely for noncommercial research and educational use, and proper attribution is requested.

Owning Collections

Critical Trends Assessment Program PRIMARY
Detailed assessments of 32 major watersheds in Illinois, conducted through the Critical Trends Assessment Program administered by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Includes contributions from each of the State Scientific Surveys which are now part of the Prairie Research Institute.