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The Geography of Flowing Water |
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Dr. Kevin Anderson from the City of Austin's Center for Environmental Research will present. The more nationally famous Colorado River that is not in Texas prompted Jimmie Dale Gilmore to write the song “Another Colorado” about the Texas Colorado River which flows through Austin. Both Colorado Rivers have been transformed by humans to tame floods and provide water for human needs, but, uniquely, the Texas Colorado was chosen as the location for the capital city of Texas. Austin began as a rivertown on the Texas Colorado River and was subject to major floods followed by severe droughts, and so we turned the river into a series of lakes in order to control flooding and assure a supply of water for the city. The lakes have seemingly tamed the river, and many newcomers think of Austin as a laketown…until a flood teaches them that we are still a rivertown, as it did in October 2018 when a flood roaring down the river resulted in the first ever city-wide boil water notice. The November lecture will examine the history of human settlement along the river from prehistoric times to the present, the complex and changing relationship between Austin and its river, and the rediscovery of the Colorado River downstream of the lakes unfolding today. |
