Stream Bank Failures in Greenville County, SC

Stream bank failures are a major threat to urban areas, larger bodies of water such as lakes and reservoirs, and the environment around them. Streams are important aspects of ecosystems all around the world and must be protected to ensure a properly functioning system. The purpose of this study was to identify failing stream banks, zoning areas, and property ownership in Greenville County so that conservation groups, such as the Friends of the Reedy River, can restore failing banks and monitor their status. This project benefits conservation groups, community members, local governments, and the county of Greenville by identifying problems areas in an attempt to keep this area clean, pristine, and an effectively functioning part of the ecosystem. The results showed that the majority of recorded failing banks are on private land and that the county water quality monitoring systems may not be picking up on abnormalities. It is important to note that stream bank failures at any given stream reach is, in most cases, an indication of problems elsewhere in the upstream direction within the watershed.  This should prompt the homeowners to take a careful look at what is going on in the upstream areas of the watershed.

The majority of data in this study came from a survey that I created to help identify key characteristics of failing stream banks throughout the county, such as type of failure, water level, etc. The rest of the data are publicly accessible and the majority were obtained from county websites, such as the watershed boundary, parcels and zoning, and monitoring station layers. Below is the survey and the Google Doc with the sources of the layers I used.

The results show that the majority of failing stream banks recorded through the survey are on privately owned land. In addition, although there are some water quality monitoring stations in the county, it seems that they are not picking up changes in the streams. Both of these factors make restoration of failing banks difficult because property owners may not be aware of the bank or the damage it can cause if it fails. The results indicate that private lands need more awareness of failing stream bank causes and effects as well as a reevaluation of monitoring stations in the county.

Now that a resource has been made to identify failing stream banks in the Greenville area, conservation groups and other organizations can begin restoration projects. The survey is something that can be used for years to come and will provide Friends of the Reedy River with the data they need to keep the Reedy River pristine. Using layers provided by Greenville County, land ownership and zoning can easily be identified which helps organizations know where to allocate resources and which areas of Greenville need the most focus.

My favorite moment of this project was the opportunity to work with the wonderful employees from Friends of the Reedy River as well as creating a tool that will help the environment and keep Greenville County beautiful.

My most challenging moment was incorporating all of the layers I needed into QGIS from various sources. I had to pull layers from the government websites, ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Pro, and from the survey that I created.

Overall, I had an amazing time learning about different GIS tools and working with methods of data analysis. I will benefit from the knowledge and relationships gained in this project for years to come. It was a great experience and I am so proud of how far I've come since the beginning of the term.