Q: How would the South Fork Zumbro River look, were an aggressive flood-control project to be inflicted upon it, and were it to be lined with concrete walls and evenly-spaced ginkgo trees?

A: I think it would look... distinctive ahem.

 

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In downtown Rochester, Minnesota, on September 3rd, 2023, was a flood control project on the South Fork Zumbro River (built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, completed in 1996) as viewed from a trail on the east side of the river, south of 4th Street Southeast, during an extreme drought as declared by the National Weather Service.

 

The South Fork Zumbro River converges with the Middle Fork Zumbro River to form the Zumbro River, which flows to the Mississippi River.

 

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Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names terms:

• Olmsted (county) (2001053)

• Rochester (2055340)

• South Fork Zumbro River (2680484)

 

Art & Architecture Thesaurus terms:

• artificial water channels (300133792)

• autumn (300133093)

• bicycle trails (300008324)

• concrete (300010737)

• drought (300055368)

• flood control (300055278)

• ginkgo (300265704)

• retaining walls (300005073)

• riverine landscapes (300435110)

• rivers (300008707)

• summer (season) (300133099)

• trails (recreation areas) (300000626)

• trees (300132410)

• urban landscapes (300132447)

 

Wikidata items:

• 3 September 2023 (Q69306911)

• 1996 in the environment (Q4591908)

• Central tall grasslands (Q5062159)

• Driftless Area (Q5307487)

• Driftless Area ecoregion (Q122302119)

• Ginkgo biloba (Q43284)

• Mississippi River drainage basin (Q2887546)

• river engineering (Q1187134)

• Rochester-Austin-Winona, MN Combined Statistical Area (Q123614775)

• Rochester/Paleozoic Plateau Upland (Q122303614)

• row (Q127182402)

• September 3 (Q2860)

• September 2023 (Q61312993)

• South Fork Zumbro River (Q35320409)

• Southeast Minnesota (Q7569365)

• stream channelization (Q42296746)

• Treaty of Traverse des Sioux (Q7837264)

• United States Army Corps of Engineers (Q1049334)

 

Library of Congress Subject Headings:

• Concrete walls (sh85030747)

• Rivers—Minnesota (sh85114344)

• Trees in cities (sh85137261)

Done