2026 WA GIS Conference: Full Schedule

9:00am PDT

Using GIS to calculate geomorphological change in a river system over time

Thursday May 21, 2026 9:00am - 9:30am PDT

We used ArcGIS Pro to determine channel migration over time in a river system in North Dakota. The discipline of geomorphology has defined parameters that describe river migration, but there are no accepted methodologies for measuring these parameters in the real world. Using GIS, we came up with unique methodologies, some built on published papers and others built from scratch. The result is a suite of methodologies that are replicable across projects and multiple years of analysis. We used these methodologies to calculate the change over time in several geomorphological characteristics, including bend amplitude and wavelength, average river width, meander belt width, sinuosity, and meander migration. This presentation will describe these characteristics and the GIS methods used in our calculations. Of note is the method used to calculate meander migration, for which we successfully replicated a methodology written by Joon Heo et al. in 2009, using least squares regression analysis.

Speakers

Katie Messick

GIS Analyst/Staff Scientist, WEST Consultants, Inc.

Katie Messick holds master’s degrees in GIS and Forestry from the University of Washington and has been using GIS in her work for 25 years. She has spent the last 10 years as a GIS Analyst and Staff Scientist at WEST Consultants, Inc., which is a small water resources engineering... Read More →

Thursday May 21, 2026 9:00am - 9:30am PDT
409

Environment, Geomorphology

2026 WA GIS Conference

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2026 WA GIS Conference

9:00am PDT

Katie Messick

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