River engineering

About: River engineering is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 435 publications have been published within this topic receiving 10286 citations. The topic is also known as: Channelisation.

Flood routing in branched river by genetic programming

Abstract: Flood routing in branched rivers is an important issue in river engineering. Hydraulic approaches to address the issue involve complex equations that are applied in flood routing with high accuracy but using a lot of data, especially river specifications. In contrast, hydrologic flood routing approaches are simple and employ limited parameters coupled with linear and nonlinear equations based on the continuity equation to route the flood. In the present study, to achieve a routed flood hydrograph considering both accuracy and simplification in the routing process, two hydrologic methods, based on (1) an extended version of the Muskingum method and (2) genetic programming (GP), were applied in a branched river in Iran for 10- and 100-year flood return periods and the results compared with those of the St. Venant equations as a numerical hydraulic method. The results show that GP decreased (improved) the sum of the squared deviation (SSQ) between hydraulic and hydrologic routed outflows by 90·71 and 49·24% ...

An ecosystem restoration model for the Mississippi Alluvial Valley based on geomorphology, soils, and hydrology

Abstract: Alternating braided and meandering stream flow regimes throughout the Quaternary Period have left a subtly complex landscape of depositional features within the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV). Prior to European settlement, those variations produced tremendous spatial complexity and diversity within vast forested wetlands and extensive fire-maintained prairies and savannas, with the distribution of specific plant communities largely reflecting abiotic site characteristics such as geomorphology, soils, and hydrology. Agricultural development, river engineering, flood protection, and drainage projects over the past century have destroyed most of the natural vegetation and obscured the patterns of plant community distribution. Recent studies have established hydrogeomorphic criteria for wetland classification over a large part of the MAV. Detailed, spatially explicit geomorphology and soils data are available for the entire MAV, and hydrologic mapping has been completed in many areas. Thus, even in areas that are currently in agriculture, the tools exist to adapt the hydrogeomorphic classification and to develop maps of potential plant community distribution based on abiotic characteristics of sites. These Potential Natural Vegetation maps provide an indication of the multi-scale complexity that once characterized the MAV, and serve as planning tools for ecosystem restoration.

Tracking River Flows from Space

Abstract: Satellite observations, combined with algorithms borrowed from river engineering, could fill large gaps in our knowledge of global river flows where field data are lacking.

Stochastic modelling of river morphodynamics

Abstract: Modern river management has to reconcile a number of functions, such as protection against floods and provision of safe and efficient navigation, floodplain agriculture, ecology and recreation. Knowledge on uncertainty in fluvial processes is important to make this possible, to design effective river engineering works, for operational forecasting and for the maintenance of the river system. In this research the focus is in particular on the quantification of uncertainty in river morphodynamics. Morphological changes can cause flood safety problems, navigation problems, problems with the water distribution over different river branches and stability or functioning problems with hydraulic structures. They may also influence the groundwater level, which may on its turn affect other functions, such as ecology and agriculture. With respect to large-scale engineering projects, such as the project Room for the River in the Netherlands, the social relevance of decisions in river management practice becomes more and more important. River systems are of a dynamic and stochastic nature and the underlying processes are not completely understood. An imperfect description of physical processes, along with the inability to accurately quantify the model inputs and parameters, leads to uncertainty in morphodynamic predictions. For this reason, identifying the uncertainty sources and assessing their contribution to the overall uncertainty in morphodynamic predictions is necessary in order to come to grips with system behaviour. This calls for a stochastic method that enables us to indicate ranges of possible morphodynamic states, their probability of occurrence and the estimation of undesired morphological effects. Stochastic modelling of river morphology and its potential in present-day river management practice is the topic of this thesis. In summary, this thesis shows how to analyse the stochastic nature of river morphology by means of Monte Carlo Simulation. It provides insight into the uncertainty sources that contribute most to the stochastic morphodynamic river behaviour. Furthermore, three applications illustrate the potential of a stochastic model approach in river management practice. The conclusion can be drawn that the use of this 'computation-intensive' approach adds value to river engineering and management practice.