CHAPTER 1 

 INTRODUCTION (HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE AND OVERVIEW) 



1.1. GEOGRAPHIC SETTING AND 

 CLASSIFICATION 



The ADalachicola estuary (Fioures 

 1-3) is part of a tri-river system that 

 includes the Apalachicola River in Florida 

 and the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers in 

 Georgia and Alabama. The Chattahoochee 

 River originates at the base of the 

 Appalachian Mountains in the Piedmont 

 upland, and traverses three geologic 

 provinces: the Piedmont, the Appalachian, 

 and the Coastal Plain. The Flint River 

 begins in the lower Piedmont Plateau just 

 north of the fall line and flows through 

 the Coastal Plain. 



The Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint 

 (ACF) drain_age basin includes an estimated 

 48,484 km" 

 Georgia, 



northern Florida (Figure 1). The 

 Chattahoochee River drains approximately 



-^ (19,^00 mi2) in western 

 southeastern Alabama, and 



?1,840 km^ (8,650 mi^) and the Flint River 

 drains an estimated ?1,444 km^ (8,4P4 

 mi^). The Jim Woodruff dam, which forms 

 Lake Seminole at the confluence of the 

 Flint and Chattahoochee rivers, 

 constitutes the headwaters of the 

 Apalachicola River. The Apalachicola 

 River is approximately 171 km (108 mi) 

 long, with a fairly uniform slope of 0.15 

 m/km (0.5 ft/mi); it falls approximately 

 12 m in its course from Lake Seminole to 

 the Gulf of Mexico. The Apalachicola 

 River drains an area of about 2,500 km^ 

 (1,030 mi2). The Chipola River, which 

 ioins the Apalachicola River near its 

 southern terminus (Figure 1), has a 

 watershed equal to that of the 

 Apalachicola. About 3% of the ACF basin 

 is in the Blue Ridge mountains, 38% in the 

 Piedmont Plateau, and 59% in the coastal 

 plain below the fall line (Figure 2). The 

 lower coastal plain is nearly flat, with 

 extensive wetlands development. 



en.'!"""" 



TRI-RIVER 

 SYSTEM 



Figure 1. The tri-river (Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, Flint) drainage area showing 

 the distribution of the important habitats and the position of key cities and 

 municipalities within the Apalachicola-Chipola drainage system. 



1 



