Channel response of an engineered river to climate change and human intervention

Humans have intervened in rivers for centuries. River engineering measures have aimed at protecting populations against flooding, ensuring reliable and safe navigation, providing freshwater for drinking, domestic and industrial use, irrigation, and energy supply, and providing opportunities for recreation. All around the world, measures such as...

Developing a Model to Study the Climate Change Impact on River Bifurcations in Engineered Rivers

Climate change is responsible for global shifts in precipitation patterns and an overall in-crease in global temperatures. The transi-tions are anticipated to modify the river hydro-graph and sea level. The changes to the hy-drograph are also likely to influence sediment flux. These alterations imply shifts in both up-stream and downstream...

Mitigation of Channel Bed Erosion through Floodplain Lowering and Nourishments

Channel adjustment in engineered rivers is often associated with channel bed incision (e.g., Chowdhury et al., 2023, Czapiga et al., 2022a, 2022b, Ylla Arbós et al., 2021). Channel bed incision reduces the stability of in-river structures, exposes river-crossing cables and pipelines, and the spatial variability of channel bed incision due to...

Large-Scale Channel Response to Erosion-Control Measures

Erosion-control measures in rivers aim to provide sufficient navigation width, reduce local erosion, or to protect neighboring communities from flooding. These measures are typically devised to solve a local problem. However, local channel modifications trigger a large-scale channel response in the form of migrating bed level and sediment...

Response of the Upper Dutch Rhine Bifurcation Region to Peak flows

Semicentennial Response of a Bifurcation Region in an Engineered River to Peak Flows and Human Interventions

A bifurcation in an engineered river system (i.e., fixed planform and width) has fewer degrees of freedom in its response to interventions and natural changes than a natural bifurcation system. Our objective is to provide insight into how a bifurcation in an engineered river responds to peak flows and human interventions. To this end, we analyze...

How Do Bifurcations in Engineered Rivers Respond to Sea level Rise?

River bifurcations divide the water and sediment over two downstream branches or bifurcates. As the changing climate adjusts the boundary conditions (i.e., base level, hydrograph, and sediment flux) for bifurcations, it will affect their flow and sediment partitioning over the bifurcates. Our objective is to provide insight into the response of...

21st Century Channel Response of the Lower Rhine River to Climate Change

Climate change puts pressure on river systems, as it increasingly alters the river controls. Engineered rivers with a fixed planform respond to climate change and human intervention by adjusting the channel slope and bed surface grain size distribution. This response often consists of channel bed incision, over hundreds of kilometres, and during...

Centennial Channel Response to Climate Change in an Engineered River

Human intervention makes river channels adjust their slope and bed surface grain size as they transition to a new equilibrium state in response to engineering measures. Climate change alters the river controls through hydrograph changes and sea level rise. We assess how channel response to climate change compares to channel response to human...

Channel Bed Erosion Characteristics in the Upper Dutch Rhine Bifurcation Region

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

How Does a River Bifurcation System Respond to Peak Flows? A Case Study of the Upper Dutch Rhine Bifurcation Region

Sediment transport capacity and supply of sediment to a river channel increase significantly during peak flow events. Here we study how a river bifurcation system (partitioning water and sediment over its downstream branches) responds to peak flow events. We focus on the Pannerdense Kop bifurcation in the Dutch Rhine River, an engineered system...

Scenarios for Controls of River Response to Climate Change in the Lower Rhine River

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...

Effect of debris damming on wave-induced hydrodynamic loads against free-standing buildings with openings

Tsunamis, impulse waves, and dam-break waves are rare but catastrophic events, associated with casualties and damage to infrastructures. An adequate description of these waves is vital to assure human safety and to generate resilient structures. Furthermore, a specific building geometry with openings, such as windows and doors, reduces wave...