Yes / Within river systems, the process of bed-forming is intricate, dynamic and is shaped by different factors. Hydraulic forces exerted by water flow play a crucial role, forming the bed substrate over time. Additionally, the presence of vegetation within the riverbed and along its banks introduces further complexity, as the interaction between plants and hydrodynamics can alter sediment transport patterns and riverbed morphology. The movement of both suspended particles and bedload materials within the water column contributes to the ongoing riverbed landscape evolution. The primary aim of this editorial collection is to assemble an extensive range of research methodologies aimed to inform engineering practices pertinent to river management. Through an exhaustive exploration of various topics, including water quality indexing, erosion and sedimentation patterns, influence of vegetation, hydrological modelling for understanding flow dynamics, and identification of critical hydraulic parameters with the utilisation of both analytical and experimental modelling techniques, this paper endeavours to provide valuable insights derived from rigorous research efforts. By synthesising and presenting these findings, we offer a resource that can effectively guide future endeavours in river engineering and related disciplines.

Abstract Water-born sediments can be transported from land to the ocean. Subsequently, waves and currents influence the sediments in their transport processes and distribution, leading to the change of the nearshore morphology and bedforms. The purpose of this study is to analyze the coastal sediments transport patterns in southern Taiwan. Two major approaches are used in this study. One is a statistical method called McLaren Model and it¡¦s derivative Transport Vector, and another is in situ process-response observation. McLaren Model uses three granulo-metric parameters to analyze net sediment transport vectors in coastal area near the Tsengwen River mouth and Kaohsiung Harbor. Transport Vectors represent the time-averaged trends. The another method is to make in situ observation on the Kaoping continental shelf. Between December 12 and December 28, 2004, an instrumented tetrapod was deployed with an upward-looking ADCP and two LISST-100s. Another downward-looking ADCP was mounted at 2 m above bed (mab). Water samples were pumped at 1 and 0.5 mab hourly on December 13, December 20 and December 27 for suspended sediment concentration (SSC) analysis. The echo intensity (EI) can reflect the SSC. The volume concentration of thirty-two grain sizes were observed by LISST-100, so we can transform the volume concentration to suspended sediment concentration by linear correlation equation. The residual sediment transport patterns for the north of Tsengwen River are directed towards the north-west along the coastline, and the sediments around the Tsengwen River mouth are transported offshore in a radial pattern. The transport directions of sediments north of Kaohsiung Harbor are also directed towards the northwest along the coastline and southeastwards south of the harbor. The observed SSC fluctuations on Kaoping continental shelf are dominated by waves and currents. The cross-correlation of EI with current shear velocity is better than with other shear velocities. The results indicate that the SSC fluctuations are dominated by currents. In this area, the net sediment transport is northwestward, in which the amount of grain-size of 63-250£gm (very fine sand and fine sand) is the greatest. This indicates that very fine-grained and fine-grained sediments are more easily transported by currents.

Rapid urbanization is a pressing issue for planners, policymakers, transportation engineers, air quality modelers and others. Due to significant environmental, traffic and other impacts, the process of land development highlights a need for land use models with behavioral foundations. Such models seek to anticipate future settlement and transport patterns, helping ensure effective public and private investment decisions and policymaking, to accommodate growth while mitigating environmental impacts and other concerns. A variety of land use models now exist, but a market-based model with sufficient spatial resolution and defensible behavioral foundations remains elusive. This dissertation addresses this goal by developing and applying such a model. Real estate markets involve numerous interactive agents and real estate with a great level of heterogeneity. In the absence of tractable theory for realistic real estate markets, this research takes a “bottom-up” approach and simulates the behavior of tens of thousands of individual agents based on actual data. Both the supply and demand sides of the market are modeled explicitly, with endogenously determined property prices and land use patterns (including distributions of households and firms). Notions of competition were used to simulate price adjustment, and market-clearing prices were obtained in an iterative fashion. When real estate markets reach equilibrium, each agent is aligned with a single, utility-maximizing location and each allocated location is occupied by the highest bidding agent(s). This approach helps ensure a form of local equilibrium (subject to imperfect information on the part of most agents) along with useroptimal land allocation patterns. The model system was applied to the City of Austin and its extraterritorial jurisdiction. Multiple scenarios reveal the strengths and limitations of the market simulation and available data sets. While equilibrium prices in forecast years are generally lower than observed or expected, the spatial distributions of property values, new development, and individual agents are reasonable. Longer-term forecasts were generated to test the performance the model system. The forecasted households and firm distributions in year 2020 are consistent with expectations, but property prices are forecasted to experience noticeable changes. The model dynamics may be much improved by more appropriate maximum bid prices for each property. More importantly, this work demonstrates that microsimulation of real estate markets and the spatial allocation of households and firms is a viable pursuit. Such approaches herald a new wave of land use forecasting opportunities, for more effective policymaking and planning. / text

The occurrence of enclosed neighbourhoods has become a common phenomenon in South African cities from the early 1990’s as a direct impact of crime rates and the fear of crime. While the enclosure of neighbourhoods provide an immediate (temporary) solution to combatting crime within existing neighbourhoods, a number of (unintentional) socio-physical and spatial consequences occur. Numerous research have been done to establish the social implications of enclosed neighbourhoods in South African cities, including the City of Tshwane, while very little research have been done to establish the physical impacts of enclosed neighbourhoods on the urban form, its impact on the transport patterns or travel behaviour and consequently the increased greenhouse gas levels being emitted into the atmosphere. This study establishes the occurrence and extent of enclosed neighbourhoods within the City of Tshwane to create a generic classification system to establish the practical impact of enclosed neighbourhoods on urban form. In-depth case studies into two enclosed neighbourhoods and a neighbourhood located adjacent to an enclosed neighbourhood were conducted to examine the impact(s) of these neighbourhoods on transport patterns, travel behaviour and greenhouse gas emissions. An overview of movement networks and an investigation of the influence of the built environment versus self-selection were launched to gain insight into the different factors that might contribute to travel behaviour in general, in addition to neighbourhood enclosures and neighbourhood re-design. This brought forth the very important relationship between land use management, transport planning and the different governing bodies and policies. The ultimate results gained from the study of selected neighbourhoods clearly showed that a number of factors influence individual transport patterns and travel behaviour, such as self-selection, initial neighbourhood design and population growth. The study did however reveal that through enclosing neighbourhoods and altering its initial neighbourhood design and movement networks, travel behaviour, transport patterns and inevitably greenhouse gas emissions for the specific neighbourhoods and adjacent neighbourhoods will unavoidably change and thus impact negatively (in some ways) on the urban form. More specifically, the results gained from this study showed that those residing within and adjacent to enclosed neighbourhoods travel greater distances on an average day, compared to those who live in an ‘open’ neighbourhood. Consequently, the average household residing within an enclosed neighbourhood emit on average up to (approximately) 4600 g/km CO2 per day more than households residing in ‘open’ neighbourhoods, which result in enclosed neighbourhoods emitting up to 26% more CO2 than ‘open’ neighbourhoods. Despite these results, residents of these enclosed neighbourhoods believe that the enclosure of these once ‘open’ neighbourhoods do not affect their travel behaviour or any traffic congestion and proclaim that their number one priority is safety which they believe is achieved through the enclosure. / Dissertation (MTRP)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / gm2014 / Town and Regional Planning / unrestricted