Bank erosion in regulated navigable rivers: Towards a process-based model of bank retreat

After the European Water Framework Directive, riverbanks in several countries had the protections removed to improve the water quality and the river ecosystem. Particularly, the Meuse River currently has several kilometres of freely eroding banks, which may have consequences for other river functions such as navigation and flood conveyance. The...

Effects of vegetation on sediment transport, experience from laboratory measurements (abstract)

Research on river bank accretion

Experimental observations on long-term behavior of migrating alternate bars

Migrating alternate bars form in alluvial channels as a result of morphodynamic instability. Extensive literature can be found on their origin and short-term development, but their long-term evolution has been poorly studied so far. In particular, it is not clear whether they eventually reach an equilibrium shape, since short-term experiments...

Experimental study on entrainment of large wood in lowland rivers

Wood transport in rivers, typically occurring during flood events, represents a relevant hazard for its potential to create obstruction at bridges and narrow cross-sections. Therefore, the understanding and prediction of entrainment and transport dynamics of woody material of different shapes, density and dimensions is of great interest for...

Long-duration laboratory experiment of slow development of steady alternate bars

The current view is that migrating bars are the result of morphodynamic instability in straight or mildly-sinuous alluvial channels and are therefore an inevitable feature of alluvial river beds. Steady bars, instead, require some external forcing or specific morphodynamic conditions to develop. Yet, recent numerical tests showed that steady...