Mississippi River Basin: Sentinel Monitoring Program

Introduction

Flowing across 1.245 million square miles in 31 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, the Mississippi River and its tributaries nourish crops, transport goods, offer recreational opportunities, and sustain robust fisheries, providing food, jobs and economic security to millions of Americans. The lands and waters of the Mississippi River basin are vital to our nation’s well-being.

Unfortunately, the river basin faces a number of threats that impact communities, agriculture, infrastructure, and the environment, including flooding, runoff from agricultural activities and sewage, and sinking land. Our communities depend on a healthy river. To protect the river and our communities, we must have timely, integrated, and actionable information to drive sound decision making and infrastructure investments throughout the Mississippi River basin.

A sentinel monitoring system will provide critical infrastructure for the nation through standardized information on present and future flooding and flood risk, water quality and sediments, ecosystem health, coastal restoration, and navigation safety.  The nation already spends a considerable amount of money measuring water levels and quality within the Mississippi River basin. However, the data collection is performed by a patchwork of agencies and is hampered by a legacy of inconsistent and insufficient funding.

The monitoring network is incomplete and inequitable, and it does not meet the 
needs of its multiple users. Incremental additional funding for the agencies with monitoring in place to make the adjustments necessary can transform the current monitoring network into a valuable, highly effective, internationally admired monitoring network for the nation’s most economically and environmentally important watershed.

A fully integrated ‘Sentinel System’ will address the shortfalls of this piecemeal network,. making data available rapidly, equitably and transparently to serve the needs of users across the basin. It will provide critical and standardized information on present and future flooding and flood risk, water quality and sediments, as well as data to support the assessment of ecosystem health over the long-term. It will provide improved critical information for river forecasting, flood inundation mapping, sediment transport and deposition, community resilience, conservation restoration and navigation across the entire basin.

The Phase I report, completed in April 2023, analyzes data gaps, monitoring needs and costs across three parameters: water quality, navigation safety and flood risk management. Phase II, completed in December 2025, considers additional criteria and capabilities to monitor ecosystem and habitat quality.

Supporting Documents

Report 2025: Ecosystem and Habitat Quality Monitoring 

Executive Summary: Building a Comprehensive ‘Sentinel’ Monitoring System for the Mississippi River

Executive Summary: Ecosystem and Habitat Quality Monitoring