Creating and coupling a high-resolution DTM with a 1-D hydraulic model in a GIS for scenario-based assessment of avulsion hazard in a gravel-bed river

In this paper we explore the development and assimilation of a high resolution topographic surface with a one-dimensional hydraulic model for investigation of avulsion hazard potential on a gravel-bed river. A detailed channel and floodplain digital terrain model (DTM) is created to define the geometry parameter required by the 1D hydraulic model HEC-RAS. The ability to extract dense and optimally located cross-sections is presented as a means to optimize HEC-RAS performance. A number of flood scenarios are then run in HEC-RAS to determine the inundation potential of modeled events, the post-processed output of which facilitates calculation of spatially explicit shear stress (τ) and level of geomorphic work (specific stream power per unit bed area, ω) for each of these. Further enhancing this scenario-based approach, the DTM is modified to simulate a large woody debris (LWD) jam and active-channel sediment aggradation to assess impact on innundation, τ, and ω, under previously modeled flow conditions. The high resolution DTM facilitates overlay and evaluation of modeled scenario results in a spatially explicit context containing considerable detail of hydrogeomorphic and other features influencing hydraulics (bars, secondary and scour channels, levees). This offers advantages for: (i) assessing the avulsion hazard potential and spatial distribution of other hydrologic and fluvial geomorphic processes; and (ii) exploration of the potential impacts of specific management strategies on the channel, including river restoration activities.     

A cost path and network analysis methodology to calculate distances along a complex river network in the Peruvian Amazon

Distance is a key variable in explicating environmental, social, and economic conditions and in defining spatial and temporal patterns. Prior research has primarily focused on using simple to complex algorithms for calculating distances along road networks. In contrast, few algorithms are available for distance calculations along fluvial networks which are often more erratic, divergent and transient than road networks. Fluvial transportation is relied upon worldwide, particularly in developing regions, where communities use river networks for transportation, access to natural resources and for trade and commerce. This paper presents a methodology developed for mapping complex fluvial networks for travel distance analysis. The methodology was applied in four major river basins in western Amazonia over some 35,000 km of river length and incorporating 919 communities as origins/destinations. A cost path and network analysis methodology was created using vector and raster datasets in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to assess interactions among communities and the distances traveled by river to reach district capitals, major urban centres and marketplaces. An accuracy assessment using distance values calculated from a previous study using a different methodological approach in the region as well as Google Earth Pro, found a high degree of concordance for distance calculations. Our methodology creates a very flexible approach for complex river systems that can be use to calculate river distances in an adaptive and efficient manner and that can be use in other regions of the world where rural communities must rely on rivers for transportation.     

Railroads, roads and lateral disconnection in the river landscapes of the continental United States

Railroads and roads are ubiquitous features in the river corridors of the United States. However, their impact on hydrologic, geomorphic, and ecological processes in fluvial and riparian landscapes has not been systematically explored at regional or continental extents. This study documents the geographic distribution of roads and railroads in the alluvial floodplains of the continental United States and the regional variability of their potential impacts on lateral connectivity and resultant channel and floodplain structure and function. We use national scale data sets and GIS analysis to derive data on stream–transportation network interactions in two broad categories: (1) crossing impacts, such as bridges and culverts, and (2) impacts where transportation infrastructure acts as a longitudinal dam along the stream channel, causing lateral floodplain disconnection. Potential stream crossing impacts are greatest in regions with long histories of road and railroad development and relatively low relief, such as the Mid-Atlantic, New England, and the Lower Mississippi and Ohio Valleys. Potential lateral disconnections are more prevalent in rugged regions such as the Western U.S. and Appalachians where transportation routes follow river corridors along valley bottoms. Based on these results, we develop a conceptual model that suggests that the area of lateral disconnection due to transportation infrastructure should be most extensive in mid-sized alluvial valleys in relatively rugged settings. The result of this disconnection is the disruption of the long-term, cut-and-fill alluviation and of the shorter-term flood and flow pulse processes that create and maintain ecosystem function in river landscapes. The tremendous extent of transportation infrastructure in alluvial valleys documented in this study suggests a revision to H.B.N. Hynes' statement that the valley rules the stream. Instead, it appears that in modern landscapes of the U.S. the valley rules the transportation network — and the transportation network rules the stream.     

The fluvial cycle at cold–warm–cold transitions in lowland regions: A refinement of theory

A previously established non-linear theory of river cyclicity as a response to climate change states that short phases of fluvial instability occur both at the transition from relatively warm (temperate) to cold (periglacial) and from relatively cold to warm periods. Such instability typically starts with vertical erosion, successively followed by sedimentary fill of the erosive scar. In spite of frequent confirmation of this theory by geomorphological reconstructions, a few problems arise. First, there are fewer incision phases than climatic transitions. Secondly, remnants of erosion at ‘cold–warm’ transitions are scarce, in contrast to obvious erosion relics at ‘warm–cold’ transitions. Furthermore, it appears that the incision style is strikingly different at both kinds of climatic transitions. Similarly, the long stable phases are also expressed in terms of different floodplain development in cold and warm periods. These arguments require a modification of the general non-linear theory.At the transition from relatively temperate to colder conditions, rivers transformed gradually from a regular, low-energy, single-channel course to a periodically high-energy, multi-channel type. The latter (braided) type is characterized by intense lateral movement, rather than by deep vertical erosion. This results in a well-expressed morphology of wide, extensive floodplains and terraces. In contrast, the linear and constrained, meandering channels incise with small width–depth ratio and build floodplains of limited lateral extent. Consequences are twofold: 1) the spatial limitation of the deeply incised, meandering valleys at the beginning of warm periods counts against their recognition; 2) relatively strong, lateral migration of the braided rivers removes most traces of previous (meandering) systems, which contrasts with the limited lateral activity of confined meandering channels. It means that in a ‘warm–cold–warm’ alternation generally only one phase of vertical erosion is preserved, the one that is caused by the high-energy, braided river at the start of the cold period.     

Simulation of braided river flow using a new cellular routing scheme

Results are presented from a numerical simulation of two-dimensional flow patterns in a braided river using a simple cellular routing scheme. The results of the routing scheme are compared with field measurements of discharge per unit width obtained within the study reach at low flow and, for higher flows, with the predictions of a more sophisticated hydraulic model that solves the two-dimensional shallow water form of the Navier–Stokes equations. An assessment is made of the sensitivity of the routing scheme to variations in the values of its main parameters, and appropriate values are determined based on the physical characteristics of the study site and available flow measurements. It is shown that despite the simple approach adopted by the cellular routing scheme to simulate processes of water redistribution, it is able to replicate accurately both the field data and the results of the more sophisticated hydraulic model. These results indicate that the routing scheme outlined here is able to overcome some of the limitations of previous simple cellular automata models and may be suitable for use in modelling bedload transport and channel change in complex fluvial environments. As such this research represents a small and ongoing contribution to the field of numerical simulation of braided river processes.     

A hybrid parallel cellular automata model for urban growth simulation over GPU/CPU heterogeneous architectures

As an important spatiotemporal simulation approach and an effective tool for developing and examining spatial optimization strategies (e.g., land allocation and planning), geospatial cellular automata (CA) models often require multiple data layers and consist of complicated algorithms in order to deal with the complex dynamic processes of interest and the intricate relationships and interactions between the processes and their driving factors. Also, massive amount of data may be used in CA simulations as high-resolution geospatial and non-spatial data are widely available. Thus, geospatial CA models can be both computationally intensive and data intensive, demanding extensive length of computing time and vast memory space. Based on a hybrid parallelism that combines processes with discrete memory and threads with global memory, we developed a parallel geospatial CA model for urban growth simulation over the heterogeneous computer architecture composed of multiple central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs). Experiments with the datasets of California showed that the overall computing time for a 50-year simulation dropped from 13,647 seconds on a single CPU to 32 seconds using 64 GPU/CPU nodes. We conclude that the hybrid parallelism of geospatial CA over the emerging heterogeneous computer architectures provides scalable solutions to enabling complex simulations and optimizations with massive amount of data that were previously infeasible, sometimes impossible, using individual computing approaches.     

Morphodynamic response of a meso- to macro-tidal intermediate beach based on a long-term data set

Four years of bi-monthly topographic surveys have been conducted on a 350 m stretch of the meso- to macro-tidal Truc Vert beach, France. Here we study the dynamics of both the inner bar and the upper part of the beach where a berm can develop in the presence of fair weather conditions. For the inner bar, the occurrences of the different states within the intermediate classification, following that of Wright and Short (Wright, L.D., Short, A.D. 1984. Morphodynamic variability of surf zones and beaches: a synthesis. Marine Geology 56, 93–118), are presented and compared to other sites in both micro- and meso-tidal environments. The results show a similar frequency of occurrence of the Transverse Bar and Rip (TBR) state, while the more dissipative states, Rhythmic Bar and Beach (RBB) and Longshore Bar and Trough (LBT), are less regularly observed despite the high wave energy levels. The LBT and RBB states are also observed in the presence of fair weather conditions and the TBR state can persist during very energetic events. Similar results are also observed with the upper beach dynamics. Very energetic events are not necessarily associated with erosion while and low-energy events are not necessarily accompanied by accretion. The conditions given here indicate, that berm development occurs preferentially when the beach morphology exhibits a TBR or a LTT state. Apart from the control exerted by offshore wave conditions, the beach state and berm development patterns exhibited by Truc Vert beach are also discussed within the framework of possible morphological (morphodynamic) feedback and of the influence of the meso- to macrotidal range which modulates the type, intensity and duration of the wave processes operating on the cross-shore profile.     

Predicting changes in alluvial channel patterns in North-European Russia under conditions of global warming

Global climate change may have a noticeable impact on the northern environment, leading to changes in permafrost, vegetation and fluvial morphology. In this paper we compare the results from three geomorphological models and study the potential effects of changing climatic factors on the river channel types in North-European Russia. Two of the selected models by Romashin [Romashin, V.V., 1968. Variations of the river channel types under governing factors, Annals of the Hydrological Institute, vol. 155. Hydrometeoizdat, Leningrad, pp. 56–63.] and Leopold and Wolman [Leopold, L.B., Wolman, M.G., 1957. River channel pattern: braided, meandering and straight, Physiographic and hydraulic studies of rivers. USA Geological Survey Professional Paper 252, pp. 85–98.] are conventional QS-type models, which predict the existence of either multi-thread or single-tread channel types using data on discharge and channel slope. The more advanced model by Van den Berg [Van den Berg, J.H., 1995. Prediction of alluvial channel pattern of perennial rivers. Geomorphology 12, 259–270.] takes into account the size of the sediment material.We used data from 16 runoff gauges to validate the models and predict the channel types at selected locations under modern and predicted for the future climatic conditions. Two of the three models successfully replicated the currently existing channel types in all but one of the studied sites. Predictive calculations under the hypothetical scenarios of 10%, 15%, 20% and 35% runoff increase gave different results. Van den Berg's model predicted potential transformation of the channel types, from single- to multi-thread, at 4 of 16 selected locations in the next few decades, and at 5 locations by the middle of the 21st century. Each of the QS-type models predicted such transformation at one site only.Results of the study indicate that climatic warming in combination with other environmental changes may lead to transformation of the river channel types at selected locations in north-western Russia. Further efforts are needed to improve the performance of the fluvial geomorphological models and their ability to predict such changes.     

平原水网地区快速城市化对河流水系的影响

为了揭示平原水网地区快速城市化对河流水系的影响,基于1:50000地形图和30 m空间分辨率遥感影像数据,采用格网化河网密度、支流发育系数和分形维数等水系指标,分析了20世纪80年代至21世纪10年代苏州市河流水系的时空变化特征,探讨了土地城市化水平与河网密度变化之间的定量关系。结果表明：① 苏州市河流长度衰减了10.55%,其中干流长度增加了3.24%,一级支流与二级支流的长度分别减少了18.87%和11.76%;河网密度在空间上以减小为主,其中干流河网密度在空间上以增加为主,支流河网密度在空间上以减少为主。② 支流发育系数由3.36下降至2.78,水系结构趋于主干化;水系分形维数由1.70下降至1.63,水系形态趋于简单化。③ 土地城市化率高于40%时,河流水系衰减趋于明显,且土地城市化水平越高,河流减少的越多。为满足不同的经济社会发展需要,不同等级河流对土地城市化的响应不尽相同：为提高城市防洪排涝能力,一级河流总体上有所增加;土地城市化率小于40%时,部分二级河流被侵占以增加耕地面积,并新开挖了许多三级河流以提高农田排涝与灌溉能力;土地城市化率大于40%时,大量支流被填埋并转换为建设用地,而且等级越低的河流衰减的越严重。     

知识经济时代我国河流地貌学面临的机遇与挑战

21世纪将是知识经济占主导地位的时代 ,知识经济的一系列新的特征及所引起的相应的社会变革 ,为我国河流地貌学的发展提供了新的机遇 ,同时也对传统地貌学提出了严峻的挑战。充分发挥河流地貌学的传统优势 ,利用现代高科技手段 ,加强理论创新研究 ,促进研究成果的转化 ,是我们为迎接知识经济时代 ,从当前就应该着手准备解决的问题。     

Late Cenozoic uplift of the Amanos Mountains and incision of the Middle Ceyhan river gorge, southern Turkey; Ar–Ar dating of the Düziçi basalt

Using the Ar–Ar technique, we have obtained the first numerical dates for the Pleistocene volcanism along the valley of the River Ceyhan in the Düziçi area of southern Turkey, in the western foothills of the Amanos Mountains. Our six dates indicate a single abrupt episode of volcanism at  270 ka. We have identified a staircase of 7 fluvial terraces, at altitudes of up to  230 m above the present level of the Ceyhan. Using the disposition of the basalt as an age constraint, we assign these terraces to cold-climate stages between marine oxygen isotope stages 16 and 2, indicating rates of fluvial incision, equated to surface uplift, that increase upstream through the western foothills of this mountain range at between 0.25 and 0.4 mm a^− 1. Extrapolation of these uplift rates into the axis of the range suggests that the entire  2300 m of present-day relief has developed since the Mid-Pliocene, a view that we confirm using numerical modelling. Since  3.7 Ma the Amanos Mountains have formed a transpressive stepover along the northern part of the Dead Sea Fault Zone, where crustal shortening is required by the geometry. Using a physics-based technique, we have modelled the overall isostatic response to the combination of processes occurring, including crustal thickening caused by the shortening, erosion caused by orographic precipitation, and the resulting outward flow of mobile lower-crustal material, in order to predict the resulting history of surface uplift. This modelling suggests that the effective viscosity of the lower crust in this region is in the range  1–2 × 10¹⁹ Pa s, consistent with a Moho temperature of  590 ± 10 °C, the latter value being in agreement with heat flow data. This modelling shows that the nature of the active crustal deformation is now understood, to first order at least, in this key locality within the boundary zone between the African and Arabian plates, the structure and geomorphology of which have been fundamentally misunderstood in the past.     

Regional and local controls on the spatial distribution of bedrock reaches in the Upper Guadalupe River, Texas

While studies on gravel mantled and mixed alluvial bedrock rivers have increased in recent decades, few field studies have focused on spatial distributions of bedrock and alluvial reaches and differences between reach types. The objective of this work is to identify the spatial distribution of alluvial and bedrock reaches in the Upper Guadalupe River. We compare reach length, channel and floodplain width, sinuosity, bar length and spacing, bar surface grain size, and slope in alluvial and bedrock reaches to identify whether major differences exist between channel reach types. We find that local disturbances, interaction of the channel and valley sides, variation in lithology, and regional structural control contribute to the distribution of bedrock reaches in the largely alluvial channel. Alluvial and bedrock channel reaches in the Upper Guadalupe River are similar, particularly with respect to the distribution of gravel bars, surface grain size distributions of bars, and channel slope and width. Our observations suggest that the fluvial system has adjusted to changes in base level associated with the Balcones Escarpment Fault Zone by phased incision into alluvial sediment and the underlying bedrock, essentially shifting from a fully alluvial river to a mixed alluvial bedrock river.     

Simulating the 1999 Capbreton canyon turbidity current with a Cellular Automata model

A numerical model has been developed for the simulation of turbidity currents driven by nonuniform, non cohesive sediment and flowing over a complex three dimensional submarine topography. The model is based on an alternative approach known as Cellular Automata paradigm. The model is validated by comparing a simulation with a reported field-scale event. The chosen case is a turbidity current which occurred in Capbreton Canyon and was initiated by a storm in December 1999. Using data from recent oceanographic cruises, the deposit of the event has been precisely described, which constrain values of model parameters. The model simulates the 1999 turbidity current over the actual canyon topography and related turbidite using three different types of particle. The model successfully simulates areas of erosion and deposition in the canyon. It predicts the vertical and longitudinal grain size evolution, and shows that the fining-up sequence can be deposited by several phases of deposition and erosion related to the current energetic variation during its evolution. This result could explain the presence of intrabed contacts or the frequent lack of facies in Bouma sequences.     

Impacts of recurring ice jams on channel geometry and geomorphology in a small high-boreal watershed

River ice jams are generally perceived as significant erosive events and are well known to impact both channel morphology and geometry. However, the extent of these impacts and the frequency of events required to maintain erosion-induced morphologies remain unexplored in most cold region watersheds. In this study, we investigated downstream variations in channel width, cross-sectional area, depth, and geomorphological characteristics in a small high-boreal basin. We coupled these observations to dendrochronological data on ice jam frequency. Our results show that channels affected by ice erosion appear enlarged and present an important retreat of the upper bank. Such enlarged channels present a typical two-level, ice-scoured morphology when ice jams recur more often than once every 5 years. By contrast, channels appear unaffected when ice jams are less frequent. These results suggest that ice jams maintain ice-scoured and enlarged morphologies once a minimal frequency-of-occurrence threshold is exceeded. We therefore conclude that ice jam frequencies should be taken into account in order to better define the role of ice as a geomorphological agent in cold environments.