Measurements of armour layer roughness geometry function and porosity

The roughness geometry function of the interfacial sublayer of a gravel-bed armour layer was measured directly by filling water stepwise into a laboratory flume and indirectly from a digital elevation model (DEM) of the surface. The results of both methods are compared and show that the DEM can be used to reliably estimate the roughness density function for a wide range of the interfacial sublayer. The direct measurements revealed an absolute minimum of porosity at the level of the roughness trough which is significantly smaller than porosity in the undisturbed subsurface and porosity estimates obtained from relationships found in the literature. The significance of the results for hydraulic engineering and ecological applications is highlighted.