Extreme river flood exposes latent erosion risk
H.J. Barneveld (HKV Lijn in Water, Wageningen University & Research)
R. M. Frings (Rijkswaterstaat)
E. Mosselman (Deltares, TU Delft - Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineering)
J. G. Venditti (Simon Fraser University)
M. G. Kleinhans (Universiteit Utrecht)
A. Blom (TU Delft - Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineering)
R.M.J. Schielen (TU Delft - Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineering)
Willem H.J. Toonen (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
D. Meijer (RiQuest)
Andries J. Paarlberg (HKV Lijn in Water)
R. Pepijn van Denderen (HKV Lijn in Water)
Jurjen de Jong (Deltares)
J. G.W. Beemster (Wageningen University & Research)
L.A. Melsen (Wageningen University & Research)
Ton Hoitink (Wageningen University & Research)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and magnitude of river floods
1. Floods not only cause damage by inundation and loss of life
2,3 but also jeopardize infrastructure because of bank failure and riverbed erosion processes that are poorly understood. Common flood safety programmes include dyke reinforcement and river widening
4, 5, 6, 7, 8–9. The 2021 flood in the Meuse Basin caused 43 fatalities and billions of dollars of damage to infrastructure
10. Here, on the basis of analysis of the Meuse flood, we show how uneven widening of the river and heterogeneity of sediment deposits under the river can cause massive erosion. A recent flood safety programme widened the river
11, but created bottlenecks where widening was either prevented by infrastructure or not yet implemented. Riverbed erosion was exacerbated by tectonic uplift that had produced a thin top gravel layer above fine-grained sediment. Greatly enhanced flow velocities produced underwater dunes with troughs that broke through the gravel armour in the bottlenecks, exposing easily erodible sands, resulting in extreme scour holes, one more than 15 m deep. Our investigation highlights the challenges of re-engineering rivers in the face of climate change, increased flood risks and competition for river widening space, and calls for a better understanding of the subsurface.
help_outline