The influence of floodplain geometry on riverbed elevation change within and between flood events

Channel Bed Erosion Characteristics in the Upper Dutch Rhine Bifurcation Region

Mid-Century Channel Response to Climate Change in the Lower Rhine River

Disentangling changes in the river bed profile: The morphological impact of river interventions in a managed river

The river bed level in low-land rivers like the Rhine branches in The Netherlands changes continuously on various spatial and temporal scales. Large-scale degradation occurs in many rivers due to river-wide engineering interventions, such as channelization, in the last decades and centuries. Local river interventions, such as the construction...

Damping of ship-induced primary waves in groyne fields

A Framework to Evaluate the SDG Contribution of Fluvial Nature-Based Solutions

Nature-based solutions (NBSs) are measures reflecting the ‘cooperation with nature’ approach: mitigating fluvial flood risk while being cost-effective, resource-efficient, and providing numerous environmental, social, and economic benefits. Since 2015, the United Nations (UN) 2030 Agenda has provided UN member states with goals, targets, and...

River Response to Anthropogenic Modification: Channel Steepening and Gravel Front Fading in an Incising River

While most of the world's large rivers are heavily engineered, channel response to engineering measures on decadal to century and several 100 km scales is scarcely documented. We investigate the response of the Lower Rhine River (Germany-Netherlands) to engineering measures, in terms of channel slope and bed surface grain size. Field data...

Bed level change in the Upper Rhine Delta and Niederrhein

The Rhine reach comprising the Niederrhein and the Upper Rhine Delta is characterized by a long history of engineering interventions. The area is densely populated and the Rhine, the main inland waterway in Europe, justifying the need for such measures. Interventions have had a strong impact on morphodynamic channel characteristics. We use bed...

A characterization of side channel development

Side channels are commonly constructed to reduce the flood risk or to increase the ecological value of a river. Such artificial side channels generally aggrade. We categorize the development of side channels based on the sediment that is deposited in these channels. Based on this categorization, we determine the main mechanisms that affect their...

Ill posedness in modelling two-dimensional morphodynamic problems: Effects of bed slope and secondary flow

A two-dimensional model describing river morphodynamic processes under mixed-size sediment conditions is analysed with respect to its well posedness. Well posedness guarantees the existence of a unique solution continuously depending on the problem data. When a model becomes ill posed, infinitesimal perturbations to a solution grow infinitely...

A reduced complexity model of a gravel-sand river bifurcation: Equilibrium states and their stability

We derive an idealized model of a gravel-sand river bifurcation and analyze its stability properties. The model requires nodal point relations that describe the ratio of the supply of gravel and sand to the two downstream branches. The model predicts changes in bed elevation and bed surface gravel content in the two bifurcates under...

Morphodynamic assessment of side channel systems using a simple one-dimensional bifurcation model and a comparison with aerial images

Side channel construction is a common intervention applied to increase a river's conveyance capacity and to increase its ecological value. Past modelling efforts suggest two mechanisms affecting the morphodynamic change of a side channel: (1) a difference in channel slope between the side channel and the main channel and (2) bend flow just...

Correlation Effect in Probabilistic Design against Piping in Multi-Functional Flood Defences

The multi-functional flood defences are one of the many solutions proposed for climate adaptation in deltaic areas. Similar concepts flood management structures such as Delta-dikes, un-breachable dikes or super-levees can also be found in literature. Yet all of them have two key design requirements in common. The first one is to improve their...

Evaluation of design hydrograph methods and probabilistic methods for estimating design water levels on the river Meuse

Design water levels are needed for the design of flood defences along the Dutch river Meuse. Current practise is that these water levels are determined by hydrodynamic simulation of a standard design hydrograph at the upstream gauging station Borgharen. The peak discharge of this synthetic hydrograph is based on a frequency analysis of the 100...