The research focus is on the various modeling aspects of flow and sediment transport in water bodies and watersheds. The interaction of flow with a mobile bed involves a complex process in which various turbulent scales characterized by coherent structures cause a chaotic sediment motion. In many rivers and natural waterways secondary flows that are dominating flow struc-tures bring about more complications. In estuaries and open waterbodies thermal stratification and internal mixing control the flow structure besides the flow interaction with the mobile bed. To adequately model these processes 3D coupled flow and transport models are needed. The research is based on use and adaptation of open source codes for 3D hydrodynamic and sediment transport model known as Estuarine Coastal Ocean Model (ECOMSED) and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model. A bed load transport model was developed and coupled to ECOMSED. The flow and sediment transport characteristics in a curved channel and a river reach were successfully captured by the model. Improvements in ECOMSED were made to study the effect of wind and basin bathymetry on mixing and flow exchange between two estuaries. Using spectral analysis the hydrological component of SWAT model was investigated for its applicability under limited data conditions in three Ethiopian catchments. / QC 20100827

<p>The fully integrated 3-D, time dependant, hydrodynamic and sediment transport numerical model ECOMSED was used to simulate flow and sediment transport in rivers. ECOMSED was originally developed for large water bodies such as lakes and oceans and solves the primitive equations of RANS along with a second order turbulence model in an orthogonal curvilinear σ- coordinate system. The availability of the model as an open FORTRAN source code made modifications and addition of new models possible. A new bed load transport model was implemented in the code as well as improvements in treatment of river roughness parameterization, bed form effects, and automatic update of flow depth due to bed evolution. The model was applied to 1- km long reach of the River Klarälven, Sweden, where it bifurcates into two west and east channels. The water surface and the flow division in the channels were made in agreement with field data by spatially varying the roughness. However, the spatial distribution of the bed shear stress was not realistic. Improvements were made in the bottom boundary condition to represent the variable effects of bed forms on roughness depending on the flow regime and the flow depth. The improved model realistically reproduced the flow field as well as the sediment transport processes in the river Klarälven.</p>

The fully integrated 3-D, time dependant, hydrodynamic and sediment transport numerical model ECOMSED was used to simulate flow and sediment transport in rivers. ECOMSED was originally developed for large water bodies such as lakes and oceans and solves the primitive equations of RANS along with a second order turbulence model in an orthogonal curvilinear σ- coordinate system. The availability of the model as an open FORTRAN source code made modifications and addition of new models possible. A new bed load transport model was implemented in the code as well as improvements in treatment of river roughness parameterization, bed form effects, and automatic update of flow depth due to bed evolution. The model was applied to 1- km long reach of the River Klarälven, Sweden, where it bifurcates into two west and east channels. The water surface and the flow division in the channels were made in agreement with field data by spatially varying the roughness. However, the spatial distribution of the bed shear stress was not realistic. Improvements were made in the bottom boundary condition to represent the variable effects of bed forms on roughness depending on the flow regime and the flow depth. The improved model realistically reproduced the flow field as well as the sediment transport processes in the river Klarälven. / QC 20101123