Engineering, meteorology and geology
Born in Albuquerque on 8 October 1915, Leopold was the son of Aldo Leopold. His education encompassed civil engineering, meteorology and geology, bringing quantitative measurement and an interest in landscapes into his study of rivers.
References: [1]
The 1953 hydraulic-geometry study
Leopold and Thomas Maddock, Jr., published USGS Professional Paper 252 in 1953. Using measurements from natural rivers, they examined relationships between discharge and channel width, mean depth, mean velocity and suspended-sediment load. Power functions described observed relationships collectively termed hydraulic geometry.
References: [2]
At a station and downstream
The study distinguished changes at one river cross-section as discharge varies from differences among cross-sections downstream when discharges have equal frequencies of occurrence. The latter condition supplied a common basis for comparison. The report also treated velocity as the outcome of interacting depth, slope and sediment conditions.
References: [2]
Field observation and environmental concerns
After 22 years with the USGS, Leopold retired in 1972 and joined the University of California, Berkeley, working across geological and landscape fields. His career connected field-based river science with environmental concerns associated with his father’s land-ethic tradition. He died in 2006.
References: [1]