American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 2009 Section 110 Compliance Report for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District NHPA, Cultural Resources Investigations Technical Report No. 29, Volume 2 A GIS Framework for Predicting Site Burial Potential in the Red River of the North Drainage

Summary

A study was undertaken to construct ArcGIS coverages that “modeled” or “predicted” locales where the conditions were conducive to bury and preserve surfaces or paleosols that may contain buried archaeological deposits within the main trunk of the Red River of the North (Red River), Minnesota and North Dakota.

The project study area was broadly defined based on the Great Flood of 1997, which covered a considerable area in the Red River valley. The coverage was expanded to buffer about an area 10 kilometers (km) wider than was inundated by the 1997 flood. The total study area is approximately 20-30 km wide (east to west) by 330 km long (north to south) and covers approximately 9,000 square km. Approximately 600 square km were determined to have a moderate to high potential to contain buried archaeological deposits. These areas represent the places in the valley that may require deep testing to determine whether buried archaeological sites are present.

The procedures generally followed in this project have been described in detail by Monaghan and Lovis (2005). The potential for buried archaeological deposits within the study area was defined through the creation and manipulation of composite databases and coverages in ArcGIS. Maps of numerous environmental parameters that either are directly associated with or can be used to predict depositional environments, the magnitude and frequency of flooding, and types of sedimentation were employed to help define and map the floodplains and terraces along the Red River.

Through a series of overlays, the diverse types of data were manipulated and combined into derivative GIS coverages that, when aggregated, define areas where buried surfaces and associated archaeological sites may be preserved. A qualitative numerical ranking of these areas that relatively assesses how likely buried deposits will occur was also undertaken, based on the co-occurrence of the predictive parameters. The methods, processes, constraints, and theoretical framework used in developing the Red River buried archaeological site GIS are described and have been abstracted from Chapter 7 of Monaghan and Lovis (2005). This ARRA funded Task Order employed 20 cultural resource management specialists.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• USACE (MCX-CMAC) - Section 110 Compliance Reports

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): US Army Corps of Engineers Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections, St. Louis District

Landowner(s): US Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District

Sponsor(s): U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, St. Louis District Curation and Archives Analysis Branch

Prepared By(s): John Milner Associates, Inc.

Submitted To(s): US Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District; US Army Corps of Engineers Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections, St. Louis District

Record Identifiers

Contract Number(s): W912P9-09-0536, Task Order 14

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