Lateral bank erosion and channel instability along the ephemeral streams of the Rillito Creek system have posed greater hazards to the Tucson metropolitan area than has overbank flooding. The historical behavior of this alluvial stream system has been investigated to document and evaluate past channel variability, determine potential sites of bank erosion and lateral channel migration, and suggest flood-plain management alternatives to Federal regulations currently applied to semiarid regions. Rillito Creek and its main tributaries, Pantano Wash and Tanque Verde Creek, were mapped from Houghton Road to the mouth of Rillito Creek using aerial photographs taken between 1941 and 1983. These maps, in conjunction with streamflow and channel oomposition data, detail channel change within this stream system.Documents in the AZGS Document Repository collection are made available by the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) and the University Libraries at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please contact [email protected]
