The Le Sueur River Basin in southern Minnesota is a major source of sediment in the Minnesota River and in Lake Pepin. Excess sediment can adversely affect the ecosystems of rivers and lakes. Assistant Professor Karen B. Gran (Geological Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth) is studying sediment in the Le Sueur River Basin in support of work by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, which seeks to evaluate and control the condition of the river. MSI is used to store large spatial datasets used in the development and execution of the sediment routing model and to facilitate data sharing between researchers. An article about this research is in MSI's Annual Research Highlights 2011.