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  4. Floodplain Land Cover and Flow Hydrodynamic Control of Overbank Sedimentation in Compound Channel Flows
 
research article

Floodplain Land Cover and Flow Hydrodynamic Control of Overbank Sedimentation in Compound Channel Flows

Juez, Carmelo  
•
Schaerer, C.
•
Jenny, H.
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November 14, 2019
Water Resources Research

Overbank sedimentation is predominantly due to fine sediments transported under suspension that become trapped and settle in floodplains when high-flow conditions occur in rivers. In a compound channel, the processes of exchanging water and fine sediments between the main channel and floodplains regulate the geomorphological evolution and are crucial for the maintenance of the ecosystem functions of the floodplains. These hydrodynamic and morphodynamic processes depend on variables such as the flow-depth ratio between the water depth in the main channel and the water depth in the floodplain, the width ratio between the width of the main channel and the width of the floodplain, and the floodplain land cover characterized by the type of roughness. This paper examines, by means of laboratory experiments, how these variables are interlinked and how the deposition of sediments in the compound channel is jointly determined by them. The combination of these compound channel characteristics modulates the production of vertically axised large turbulent vortical structures in the mixing interface. Such vortical structures determine the water mass exchange between the main channel and the floodplain, conditioning in turn the transport of sediment particles conveyed in the water, and, therefore, the resulting overbank sedimentation. The existence and pattern of sedimentation are conditioned by both the hydrodynamic variables (the flow-depth ratio and the width ratio) and the floodplain land cover simulated in terms of smooth walls, meadow-type roughness, sparse-wood-type roughness, and dense-wood-type roughness.

  • Details
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Type
research article
DOI
10.1029/2019WR024989
Web of Science ID

WOS:000496703600001

Author(s)
Juez, Carmelo  
Schaerer, C.
Jenny, H.
Schleiss, A. J.  
Franca, M. J.  
Date Issued

2019-11-14

Published in
Water Resources Research
Volume

55

Start page

9072

End page

9091

Subjects

Environmental Sciences

•

Limnology

•

Water Resources

•

Environmental Sciences & Ecology

•

Marine & Freshwater Biology

•

Water Resources

•

compound channel

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floodplain sedimentation

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floodplain vegetation

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fine sediments

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suspended sediment transport

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coherent structures

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mixing layer

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surface

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transport

•

patterns

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river

•

roughness

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straight

Note

[1316]

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
PL-LCH  
Available on Infoscience
November 28, 2019
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/163435
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