GEOMETRIC CORRELATIONS BETWEEN MID-CHANNEL ISLANDS IN THE OSWEGATCHIE RIVER

We were interested in the formation, location, and geometry of islands in the Oswegatchie River and the correlation between distance from the mouth, channel width, and island size. We wanted to see how the island shape changed based on where the islands were located in the channel. We focused on the Oswegatchie River because of its connection to the St. Lawrence River and its connection to the Adirondack Park. The river starts in Partlow Lake and flows to Ogdensburg where it flows into the Saint Lawrence River.

We used Google Earth to remotely measure the geometry and location of the islands in the channel. Using Google Earth, we were able to determine the island’s geometry based on channel width, island width, surface area, position of the island relative to the left and right bank, and the distance from the mouth of the river. Given the data we are able to see that as you move upstream the island width and length becomes smaller. The range of the island widths is 2.42 meters to 77.8 meters. The range of the island lengths is 3.1 meters to 467 meters. We were also able to measure the surface area of the islands in comparison to how far upstream they were the surface areas of the islands decreased the farther upstream they were. An island that was 8,278.21 meters upstream had a surface area of 502 meters squared compared to an island 224,691.12 meters with a surface area of 15.6 meters squared. We expected to see a decrease in surface area size consistent with the channel distance moving upstream, however, there is no consistent pattern leaving us with a shotgun pattern.