Mississippi Alluvial Plain Extent, November 2017

The Mississippi Alluvial Plain (MAP) has become one of the most important agricultural regions in the US, and it relies heavily on a groundwater system that is poorly understood and shows signs of substantial change. The heavy use of the available groundwater resources has resulted in significant groundwater-level declines and reductions in base flow in streams within the MAP. These impacts are limiting well production and threatening future water-availability for the region. This product will help not only scientists in our center, but also at a national level. This product will also be part of a larger study encompassing the Mississippi Alluvial Plain region. The Mississippi Alluvial Plain extent was delineated using GIS tools to represent the geographic extent of the Mississippi Alluvial Aquifer through incorporation of elevation information, geomorphology knowledge, ecological region extent, and previously published extents for part of the MAP region. The current MAP extent represents version 1.0. Future changes to the MAP extent will be tracked through increasing version numbers.