Demonstration

Table 1. System configurations.

Land-line

No land-line

Land-line

No land-line power or standard phone service

power and

power,

Cellular

Wireless

Satellite

standard

no standard

phone service phone service phone service telephone

RF

Ethernet

transceiver

Pressure

transducer

transducer transducer

transducer

Data

acquisition

acquisition acquisition acquisition

acquisition

device

Notification

Notification Notification

Data transfer Data transfer Data transfer Data transfer

Solar panel Solar panel Solar panel

Solar panel

Demonstration

Lancaster, New Hampshire, lo-

cated on the Israel River, is prone to

flooding caused by unpredictable ice

jams (Fig. 2). The Israel River is

appproximately 21 miles long and has

a drainage area of about 136 square

miles at its confluence with the

Connecticut River in Lancaster. The

river is generally shallow and relative-

ly steep, with a rough bed, until it

reaches the mildly sloping reach about

1.5 miles long that results from the

backwater of the Connecticut River.

The Israel River produces a tremen-

dous amount of frazil ice during early

winter, forming substantial deposits in

the backwater reach of the Connec-

ticut River.

As with many New England

Figure 2. Ice jam, 6 February 1996. This jam resulted in flooding, property

towns, settlement along the river was

damage, and street closings in Lancaster, New Hampshire.

accompanied by the construction of

dams to supply mechanical power. A New Hampshire Water Resources Board dam inventory in 1936 reported four dams

within Lancaster. These included a 20-ft-tall timber crib dam located just downstream from the Main Street Bridge and a

second 20-ft-high dam upstream from the bridge. The locations of the third 20-ft-high 220-ft-long dam, and the fourth dam,

25 feet high, can be seen in Figure 3. Each dam created a small impoundment that captured frazil ice during the winter and

slowed the movement of ice downstream during breakup. The delays in ice movement caused by the dams decreased the

volume of ice available to jam in and near the center of town.

2

ERDC/CRREL TN-03-2