The Arizona Geological Survey has just made a special paper available for download as a PDF:
Pearthree, M.S. and Baker, V.R., 1987, Channel Change Along the Rillito Creek System of Southeastern Arizona, 1941 Through 1983; Implications for Flood-Plain Management. Arizona Geological Survey Special Paper 6, 58 p., scale 1:24,000
It is well illustrated and, although originally published in 1987, it may have implications for channel behavior in the face of a record El Niño.
To download the paper, click here.
Description: Lateral bank erosion and channel instability along the ephemeral streams of the Rillito Creek system have posed greater hazards to the Tucson metropolitan area than has overbank flooding. The historical behavior of this alluvial stream system has been investigated to document and evaluate past channel variability, determine potential sites of bank erosion and lateral channel migration, and suggest flood-plain management alternatives to Federal regulations currently applied to semiarid regions. Rillito Creek and its main tributaries, Pantano Wash and Tanque Verde Creek, were mapped from Houghton Road to the mouth of Rillito Creek using aerial photographs taken between 1941 and 1983. These maps, in conjunction with streamflow and channel composition data, detail channel change within this stream system.