Assessing Impact of Dams on Mid-Channel Island Geometry Using Remotely Sensed Data (2022)

This project’s goal was to find a correlation between damming and island geometry by using a combination of ArcGIS Pro and Google Earth. We measured and assessed 300+ islands to understand how damming shapes the formation of islands. Our focus was the Grasse River, which is the North Country’s least dammed river (three main dams). Our research showed that island size and formation is still affected. The Grasse River’s north section, since it is still dammed, has a greater variety of island sizes than does the river’s southern section, which is currently rebounding. The area covered by this project is distinctive, because roughly 12,000 years ago glaciation removed most of the topsoil. With the river recently developing, the introduction of damming further impacted the dynamic of the river.