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Increased sediment loads within river catchments have well-documented detrimental effects on water quality and catchment management plans are required to address reduction and mitigation of these problems. In order to do this it is essential that tools are available that deliver reliable sediment generation data at appropriate temporal and spatial scales. Currently, most sediment generation models do not include bank erosion individually as a sediment source. Therefore, to enable improved accuracy in predictions of future sediment pressures under environmental change, explicit modelling of the rates of sediment production by the bank erosion is required to provide a more complete representation of the catchment sediment budget. In this study, an existing prototype national bank erosion index has been refined. Using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) digitised overlays, channel migration rates were calculated for several UK catchments. Relationships between the rate of channel bank erosion and factors controlling the rates of channel migration were investigated, including channel sinuosity, slope, upstream catchment area, and restriction of migration due to valley width. Significant correlations between bank erosion and sinuosity, upstream area and channel confinement were observed. The non-linear influence of channel planform geometry (curvature and sinuosity) on migration rates was further investigated using an existing meander migration model. A new bank erosion model was developed to incorporate the influence of both channel confinement and sinuosity. As the model incorporates the key physical controls on bank erosion, hence it is expected that it will have wide applicability in catchment- to national-scale bank erosion assessment. A computationally efficient catchment routing model was developed. Data output from a newly developed catchment overland sediment and runoff estimation model (ADAS APT) was used as input to the routing model. The newly developed bank erosion model and an existing floodplain sedimentation model were incorporated within the routing methodology to provide a catchment sediment budget model. The model was applied to the Exe catchment, Devon, UK and validated against observational data. Model estimations of annual sediment generation through bank erosion, sediment deposition on floodplains, and sediment load at the catchment outlet were within the range of observed values. The catchment sediment budget model developed in this thesis provides a more comprehensive representation of catchment sediment processes than existing alternative methodologies.

Salt marshes are some of the most productive and valuable landscapes on earth, but they are vulnerable to the effects of sea-level rise, erosion and eutrophication. These processes act on a wide range of temporal and spatial scales, which complicate assessments of the health and stability of marsh ecosystems. High-frequency monitoring using in situ sensors captures the complete range of these dynamics, but extracting meaningful physical and ecological information from these signals requires process-based models coupled with statistical techniques. I develop and apply such methods to study two coastal landscapes, a coastal pine forest on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and a mesotidal salt marsh complex in the Plum Island Estuary, Massachusetts. Observations from groundwater wells in the Virginia pine forest indicate that storms are the dominant controls on the hydrology of the forest and that tidal influence is nonexistent. This forest exhibits a distinct spatial pattern in age structure in which young trees do not grow at low elevations. This pattern can be explained by a model that includes the interaction of sea-level rise, storms and the age-dependent variation in tree stress response, which predicts that the long-term evolution of the boundary is an ecological ratchet. Stresses due to sea-level rise slowly push the boundary at which young trees can survive upslope. Powerful storms then kill the mature, persistent forest at low elevations, which quickly pushes the forest boundary up to the regeneration boundary. Salt marshes need to accumulate sediment to replenish material lost as sea-level rises and creek banks erode. Fluxes of sediment can be monitored with simultaneous high-frequency observations of flow from acoustic Doppler current profilers and turbidity from optical backscattering sensors. I first investigate the relationship between water level and flow in marsh channels and develop predictive stage-discharge models to simplify the monitoring of fluxes. I then construct sediment budgets for eleven salt marshes in the Plum Island Estuary. The observed budgets depend strongly on the unique hydrodynamic conditions of each marsh channel. Variability in these conditions leads to the observed spatial and temporal variability in sediment fluxes from these marshes.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第24888号 / 工博第5168号 / 新制||工||1987(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院工学研究科都市社会工学専攻 / (主査)教授 角 哲也, 教授 田中 賢治, 准教授 竹林 洋史 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Philosophy (Engineering) / Kyoto University / DGAM

O objetivo principal deste estudo é a análise do balanço de sedimentos arenosos na enseada de Balneário Camboriú, localizada no litoral centro-norte do Estado de Santa Catarina. Para alcançar os objetivos deste trabalho a enseada foi compartimentada em células e utilizadas diferentes metodologias que envolveram a análise de diversos parâmetros, tais como: sedimentologia e morfologia da praia e antepraia; estabilidade da praia em planta e perfil; perfil de equilíbrio da enseada; transporte de sedimentos por ondas e correntes e perda de sedimentos para fora da praia através dos banhistas. A praia de Balneário Camboriú é composta de areia fina a muito fina, de composição quartzosa, bem a moderadamente classificados. A distribuição das fácies sedimentares da enseada de Balneário Camboriú demonstra a inexistência de trocas de sedimentos arenosos da praia com a região da antepraia, sendo esta dominada principalmente por sedimentos finos (silte e argila). A estabilidade da praia em planta encontra-se em equilíbrio dinâmico na porção norte e sul da enseada. A morfologia praial em valores de variação de volume e largura demonstrou que os perfis localizados na porção norte, que corresponde a região mais exposta da praia, apresentam maiores variações do que os demais perfis localizados nas porções mais protegidas. Verificou-se um processo de rotação praial entre os perfis, havendo acresção em alguns enquanto ocorre erosão em outros, mostrando uma troca de sedimentos entre eles. O volume de sedimentos ganho pela praia entre 1994 e 2005 foi de aproximadamente 49.000 m3 que foram adicionados artificialmente por uma obra de alimentação executada pela prefeitura municipal. A profundidade de fechamento apresenta um comportamento gradacional, com diminuição dos valores de norte para o sul da enseada, em acordo com os padrões de distribuição do fluxo de energia das ondas e correntes. Os valores definidos para a profundidade de fechamento variam entre 4 m e 1,7 m. Este limite de profundidade é também demonstrado na variação faciológica entre a praia e antepraia. Os cenários de refração, difração de ondas e transporte de sedimentos associado demonstrou que a praia se comporta como uma célula fechada, não havendo troca significativa de sedimentos entre esta e a região de antepraia. Portanto, gerando um balanço arenoso nulo entre estes dois ambientes. Verificou-se, que o volume sedimentar removido da praia pelos banhistas não causou grande impacto no balanço de sedimentos durante o período amostral. Por outro lado, sugere-se que em longo prazo, esta retirada de areia possa representar um déficit mais significativo, da ordem de 970m³. O cálculo do balanço de sedimentos arenosos para a praia e enseada de Balneário Camboriú apresentou um valor negativo de 152 m3/ano. Este valor pode ser considerado mínimo quando comparado ao volume total de sedimentos da praia, e corresponde a metade do valor calculado para a perda anual de sedimentos causadas pelos banhistas Com isso pode-se concluir que a enseada de Balneário Camboriú está em equilíbrio quanto ao balanço sedimentar, sem perdas e ganhos de sedimentos consideráveis. / The overall goal of this study is the sandy sediment budget analysis in the Balneário Camboriú bay, located in central-northern coast of Santa Catarina State. To achieve the objectives of this work the bay was compartments in cells and used different methodologies that involved the analysis of various parameters such as: the beach and bay sedimentology and morphology; planform and profile beach stability; equilibrium beach profile; sediment transport by waves and currents and loss of sediment through the beach users. The Balneário Camboriú beach is composed of the fine and very fine sand, quartz and to moderately classified. The sedimentary facies distribution shows there are no exchanges of sediment from the sandy beach with the bay, dominated mainly by fine-grained sediments (silt and clay). The planform beach stability is in dynamic equilibrium in the north and south beach portion. The beach morphology change in volume and width values showed that the profiles located in the northern portion, more exposed to the beach, have more variations than the other profiles located in portions more protected. There was a process of beach rotation between the profiles, there was accretion in some profiles and erosion in others, showing an exchange of sediment between them. The sediment volume gain the beach between 1994 and 2005 was approximately 49,000 m3 which were artificially added to the beach for nourishment implemented by Municipality. The depth of closure presents a gradational behavior, with declining values of north to the south of the bay, in accordance with the waves and currents flow of energy distribution patterns. The values defined for the depth of closure ranging from 4 m to 1.7 m. This limit of depth is also shown in facies variation between the beach and shoreface. The waves refraction and diffraction scenarios and sediment transport showed that the beach is behaving like a closed cell, with no exchange between beach and shoreface. Therefore, generating a null balance between these two sandy environments. It was found that the sediment volume removed by users beach causes no major impact on the coastal sediment sampling during the period (summer 2003/2004). Moreover, it is suggested that a long-term Balneário Camboriú, the sand removal could present a more significant deficit in the coastal sediment, as this beach is mostly populated flow in twenty years where the sediment volume would be withdrawn from 970m³ . The beach and shoreface Balneário Camboriú sandy sediment balance calculation presented a negative value of 152 m3/year. This quantities can be considered minimal when compared to the total sediment volume from the beach. The estimated value is half the value calculated for the loss of sediment removed by users. This can be concluded that the inlet of Balneário Camboriú bay is totally balanced on the sediment, with no considerable sediment losses and gains.

Event-based sediment budgets were developed in a small agricultural sub-watershed using radionuclide tracers in conjunction with traditional monitoring techniques. The result of these budgets quantified the flux of material from each sediment source in the sub-watershed. The first step in the study was to quantify the net flux of material through the watershed outlet for runoff events. Results indicated that a pronounced clockwise hysteresis effect occurred during all studied events. The cause of the hysteresis effect was attributed to exhaustion of the upland (i.e., hillslopes and floodplains) sediment source. The hysteresis effect was dampened during an extreme flash flood event that caused overbank flow. This dampening was attributed to an increase in upland sediment mobilization resulting from overbank flow. Results of the event-based monitoring were compared against a previously developed sediment rating curve that assumed a power-law relationship between suspended sediment transport and water flow rates. The results indicate that the power-law relationship grossly under predicted the sediment flux over each runoff event. A tracing technique was utilized to establish the relative contributions from the uplands and the stream channel (i.e., channel banks and bed). This technique used the relationship between the naturally occurring radionuclide tracers 7Be and 210Pbxs to differentiate eroded upland soils from channel-derived sediments in the suspended sediment loads. A simple two end-member unmixing model was used to determine the relative contribution from each source. Results indicate that the upland source was the dominant contributor to the suspended load early in the runoff events, but channel contributions were more prevalent at later stages, reinforcing the conclusion drawn from the hysteresis observation. Further analysis of the results indicated that the uplands contributed the majority of the material to the suspended load because the sediment transport rate during the early stages of the event was much larger than during the later stages. Therefore, watershed managers wishing to minimize non-point source pollution resulting from erosion should first focus their efforts on reducing erosion of upland soils.

High rates of soil loss and high sediment loads in rivers necessitate efficient monitoring and quantification methodologies so that effective land management strategies can be designed. Constructing a sediment budget is a useful approach to address these issues. Quantifying a sediment budget using classical field-based techniques, however, is labour intensive and expensive for poorly gauged, large drainage basins. The availability of global environmental datasets in combination with GIS techniques provides an opportunity for studying large basins. Following this approach, a framework is presented for constructing sediment budgets for large, data-sparse drainage basins, which is applied to the mountainous upper Indus River basin in northern Pakistan. The methodological framework consists of five steps: (1) analyzing hydro-climatological data for dividing the drainage basin into characteristic regions, and calculating sediment yields; (2) investigation of major controls on sediment yields; (3) identification and mapping of sediment source areas by spatially distributed modelling of erosional processes; (4) spatially distributed modelling of sediment yields; and (5) carrying out the sediment budget balance calculation at the basin outlet. Further analysis carried out on the Indus data has enabled a better understanding of sediment dynamics in the basin.<p> Analysis of the available hydro-climatological data indicates that the basin can be subdivided into three characteristic regions based on whether runoff production and subsequent sediment generation is controlled by temperature (Region 1, upper, glacierized sub-basins), precipitation caused by the monsoon and western disturbances (Region 3, lower sub-basins), or a combination of the two (Region 2, middle reach sub-basins). It is also demonstrated that contrary to the conventional model, the specific sediment yield increases markedly with drainage area along the Indus River. An investigation of major controls on specific sediment yield in the basin indicates that percent snow/ice cover is a major land cover control for specific sediment yield. Spatially distributed erosion modelling predictions indicate that 87% of the annual gross erosion takes place in the three summer months with greatest erosion potential concentrated in sub-basins with high relief and a substantial proportion of glacierized area. Lower erosion rates can be explained by the arid climate and low relief on the Tibetan Plateau, and by the dense vegetation and lower relief in the lower monsoon sub-region. The model predicts an average annual erosion rate of 3.2 mm/a or 868 Mt/a. Spatially distributed sediment yield predictions made with coupled models of erosion and sediment delivery indicate that the Indus sub-basins generally show an increase of sediment delivery ratio with basin area. The predicted annual basin sediment yield is 244 Mt/a and the overall sediment delivery ratio in the basin is calculated as 0.28. The long-term mean annual sediment budget, based on mass balance, is characterized by a gross erosion of 762.9, 96.7 and 8.4 Mt, and a gross storage of 551.4, 66.1, and 6.5 Mt in the upper, middle, and lower regions of the basin, respectively. The sediment budget indicates that the major sources of eroded sediment are located in the Karakoram, in particular in the Hunza basin. Substantial sediment storage occurs on the relatively flat Tibetan Plateau and the Indus River valley reach between Partab Bridge and Shatial. The presented framework for sediment budget construction requires relatively few data, mostly derived from global datasets. It therefore can be utilized for other ungauged or poorly gauged drainage basins of the world.

No description available.

High rates of soil loss and high sediment loads in rivers necessitate efficient monitoring and quantification methodologies so that effective land management strategies can be designed. Constructing a sediment budget is a useful approach to address these issues. Quantifying a sediment budget using classical field-based techniques, however, is labour intensive and expensive for poorly gauged, large drainage basins. The availability of global environmental datasets in combination with GIS techniques provides an opportunity for studying large basins. Following this approach, a framework is presented for constructing sediment budgets for large, data-sparse drainage basins, which is applied to the mountainous upper Indus River basin in northern Pakistan. The methodological framework consists of five steps: (1) analyzing hydro-climatological data for dividing the drainage basin into characteristic regions, and calculating sediment yields; (2) investigation of major controls on sediment yields; (3) identification and mapping of sediment source areas by spatially distributed modelling of erosional processes; (4) spatially distributed modelling of sediment yields; and (5) carrying out the sediment budget balance calculation at the basin outlet. Further analysis carried out on the Indus data has enabled a better understanding of sediment dynamics in the basin.<p> Analysis of the available hydro-climatological data indicates that the basin can be subdivided into three characteristic regions based on whether runoff production and subsequent sediment generation is controlled by temperature (Region 1, upper, glacierized sub-basins), precipitation caused by the monsoon and western disturbances (Region 3, lower sub-basins), or a combination of the two (Region 2, middle reach sub-basins). It is also demonstrated that contrary to the conventional model, the specific sediment yield increases markedly with drainage area along the Indus River. An investigation of major controls on specific sediment yield in the basin indicates that percent snow/ice cover is a major land cover control for specific sediment yield. Spatially distributed erosion modelling predictions indicate that 87% of the annual gross erosion takes place in the three summer months with greatest erosion potential concentrated in sub-basins with high relief and a substantial proportion of glacierized area. Lower erosion rates can be explained by the arid climate and low relief on the Tibetan Plateau, and by the dense vegetation and lower relief in the lower monsoon sub-region. The model predicts an average annual erosion rate of 3.2 mm/a or 868 Mt/a. Spatially distributed sediment yield predictions made with coupled models of erosion and sediment delivery indicate that the Indus sub-basins generally show an increase of sediment delivery ratio with basin area. The predicted annual basin sediment yield is 244 Mt/a and the overall sediment delivery ratio in the basin is calculated as 0.28. The long-term mean annual sediment budget, based on mass balance, is characterized by a gross erosion of 762.9, 96.7 and 8.4 Mt, and a gross storage of 551.4, 66.1, and 6.5 Mt in the upper, middle, and lower regions of the basin, respectively. The sediment budget indicates that the major sources of eroded sediment are located in the Karakoram, in particular in the Hunza basin. Substantial sediment storage occurs on the relatively flat Tibetan Plateau and the Indus River valley reach between Partab Bridge and Shatial. The presented framework for sediment budget construction requires relatively few data, mostly derived from global datasets. It therefore can be utilized for other ungauged or poorly gauged drainage basins of the world.

An alongshore sediment transport and shoreline change analysis on Galveston Island in the period of 1990-2001 is conducted in this study using the Generalized Model for Simulating Shoreline Change (GENESIS). The study is divided into three main parts: 1. Assessment of the numerical accuracy of GENESIS, 2. Assessment of the alongshore sediment transport and shoreline change on the Galveston coast in the period of 1990-2001, and 3. Assessment of several erosion control practices on the Galveston coast for the period of 2001-2011. The first assessment shows that GENESIS has a numerical error which tends to be large for low energy wave (small breaking wave height) and large breaking wave angle. This numerical inaccuracy cannot be neglected and needs to be compensated for. This can be done, for instance, by adjusting the transport parameter K1. In the second assessment, good agreement between the calculated and measured transport/shoreline is achieved, particularly on the West Beach. Comparison between the potential alongshore sediment transport and sediment budget-inferred alongshore transport provides a systematic way of selecting the proper wave data set for the alongshore and shoreline change calculation. The third assessment proves that beach nourishment is the best alternative to overcome/reduce the erosion problem on the Galveston coast. Constructing coastal structure (groins, offshore breakwater) on the West Beach does not resolve the problem of erosion, but instead shifts it further west.