Comparison of methods for quantifying active layer dynamics and bedload discharge in armoured gravel‐bed rivers

Surrogate technologies to monitor bed load discharge have been developed to supplement and ultimately take over traditional direct methods. Our research deals with passive acoustic monitoring of bed load flux using a hydrophone continuously deployed near a river bed. This passive acoustic technology senses any acoustic waves propagated in the river environment and particularly the sound due to interparticle collisions emitted during bed load movement. A data set has been acquired in the large Alpine gravel‐bedded Drau River. Analysis of the short‐term frequency response of acoustic signals allows us to determine the origin of recorded noises and to consider their frequency variations. Results are compared with ancillary field data of water depth and bed load transport inferred from the signals of a geophone array. Hydrophone and geophone signals are well correlated. Thanks to the large network of deployed geophones, analysis of the spatial resolution of hydrophone measurements shows that the sensor is sensitive to bed load motion not only locally but over distances of 5–10 m (10–20% of river width). Our results are promising in terms of the potential use of hydrophones for monitoring bed load transport in large gravel bed rivers: acoustic signals represent a large river bed area, rather than being local; hydrophones can be installed in large floods; they can be deployed at a low cost and provide continuous monitoring at high temporal resolution.

Integrated automatic and continuous bedload monitoring in gravel bed rivers

The event-based bedload yields of a small gravel-bed river (the Esconavette Torrent) have been concomitantly determined by surveying coarse sediment deposition in a trap and by monitoring the active layer of the bed and the displacement of painted tracers. The geometry of the active layer was obtained by means of scour chains and topographic resurveys. The cumulative bedload yield of 4 flow events measured in the trap and by the chain and tracer approach was respectively 174 and 153 m3. The consistency between those two field-based estimates confirms that the deployment of scour chains and tracers in gravel-bed rivers have the potential to provide a robust assessment of bedload transport. This potential theoretically depends on the spatial density of scour chains and the ability of the tracing technique to fit the grain size distribution of the active layer. The results demonstrate that a distance between scour chains that represents 10-15% of the active channel width is sufficient for a rather accurate determination of event bedload transport rate by reconstruction of scour and fill throughout a cross-section.

Relationships between hydraulic variables and bedload transport in a subalpine channel, Colorado Rocky Mountains, U.S.A.

An innovative scour chains device composed of active UHF RFID tags is proposed to survey the bed active layer. This device is tested on three cross-sections deployed along two large Alpine braided rivers: the Drac and the Vénéon. A specific field deployment procedure is developed, using a technique of drilling with a tube and a jack-hammer. After each flood, the device allows recording presence/absence of active tags inside a scour chain column. This provides the maximum scouring depth of the bed at the position of the column, and the topographic resurvey of the channel provides the net fill depth. Results show that bed active layer can reach up to 1.43 m during high flow conditions and remains <0.1 m during low and moderate flows. The main advantage of this technology against traditional scour chains is the rapidity and easiness with which the scouring depth is obtained after a flow event, notably under conditions of massive net deposition after the flow. This technology is therefore particularly suitable for large braided rivers, where traditional scour chains necessitate too much field efforts for their relocation, and can be rapidly lost under deep active layers.

Hydrologic, geomorphic, and stratigraphic controls on suspended sediment transport dynamics, Big Harris Creek restoration site, North Carolina, USA

Bed load transport in an obstruction-formed pool in a forest, gravelbed stream

The aim of this study is to introduce a novel method which can separate sand- or gravel-dominated bed load transport in rivers with mixed-size bed material. When dealing with large rivers with complex hydrodynamics and morphodynamics, the bed load transport modes can indicate strong variation even locally, which requires a suitable approach to estimate the locally unique behavior of the sediment transport. However, the literature offers only few studies regarding this issue, and they are concerned with uniform bed load. In order to partly fill this gap, we suggest here a decision criteria which utilizes the shear Reynolds number. The method was verified with data from field and laboratory measurements, both performed at nonuniform bed material compositions. The comparative assessment of the results show that the shear Reynolds number-based method operates more reliably than the Shields–Parker diagram and it is expected to predict the sand or gravel transport domination with a <5% uncertainty. The results contribute to the improvement of numerical sediment transport modeling as well as to the field implementation of bed load transport measurements.

An experimental analysis of bed load transport in gravel-bed braided rivers with high grain Reynolds numbers

The amount of sediment bed load being carried by rivers significantly impacts the inherent development of the riverine systems in terms of hydrodynamic and morphodynamic changes. In this direction, acoustic Doppler current profiler velocity literature data collected at the Óbidos station in the Amazon River were applied to investigate bed-load transport using the Entropy method. First, the cross-sectional velocity distribution was estimated with that model for two scenarios of source data: (a) all surface velocities and (b) single surface velocity as the maximum surface velocity. The latter analysis was conducted with two different assumptions of the surface velocity distribution: parabolic and elliptic. The error percentage for estimation of the mean cross-sectional velocity and discharge was 2.08% based on considering all surface velocities and was 4.08% and 12.5% based on parabolic and elliptic scenarios, respectively. Next, the shear velocity and Shields mobility parameter were calculated for two scenarios. Finally, the dimensionless bed load transport rate was calculated based on a range of particle diameters. Applying the different equations for the dimensionless bed load transport rate based on various scenarios of surface velocity distributions, the results from the entropy method agreed with the experimental data in the literature. Overall, the current study highlighted the potential of the entropy model to estimate river discharge and bed load transport in large rivers relying only on surface velocity.

Recently, the use of RFID (radio frequency identification) technology has expanded enormously. It was developed in the middle of the twentieth century and is today being applied in many areas: supply chains, access control, electronic passports, health care, road pricing, etc. The advantage of RFID over bar-code technology is that it does not require direct line-of-sight reading and that tags can be interrogated at greater distances. The technology also enables the automation of some control processes, which results in a significant gain in terms of time and cost.

The operation of reservoirs has prompted rivers to transition from natural ecosystems to “natural–artificial” composite ecosystems, which has not only altered the water–sediment processes but has also affected river ecology in the downstream river channels. To reveal the impact of the Xiaolangdi Reservoir (China) on sediment transport and aquatic organisms in the Lower Yellow River (LYR), this article analyzes the changes in the water–sediment processes and sediment transport characteristics prior to and following the reservoir construction, based on measured water–sediment data of 688 floods from 1960 to 2023. It derives a theoretical formulation for the sediment delivery ratio (SDR) of flood events based on the sediment transport rate equation and evaluates the living environment of aquatic organisms in the LYR. The results indicate that after the construction of Xiaolangdi Reservoir, the frequency of floods with an average flow discharge below 1000 m3/s increased from 26.08% to 37.42%, and the frequency of floods with an average sediment concentration below 20 kg/m3 increased from 46.34% to 89.03%. The SDR of flood events significantly correlates positively with the average flow discharge and the water load variation coefficient. Conversely, it negatively correlates with the average sediment concentration and the incoming sediment coefficient. The sediment transport capacity of various river reaches in the LYR gradually increases along the direction of the river channel. The use of Xiaolangdi Reservoir has enhanced sediment transport in the upper LYR reach while decreasing it in the lower reach, aligning the overall sediment transport capacity of the downstream river channel. Additionally, the water–sediment process of the flood events following the completion of the Xiaolangdi Reservoir construction has improved the living environment for aquatic organisms, which is conducive to restoring biodiversity and improving the ecological environment of the river. The research results have enriched the understanding of the impact of reservoir construction on downstream water–sediment transport and aquatic organisms in sandy rivers, providing technical support for the health and sustainable development of rivers.

Modelling the Error in Flood Discharge Measurements

Bedload transport

Bed-load transport in natural rivers exhibits nonlinear dynamics with strong temporal memory (i.e., retention due to burial) and/or spatial memory (i.e., fast displacement driven by turbulence). Nonlinear bed-load transport is discrete in nature due to the discontinuity in the sediment mass density and the intermittent motion of sediment along river beds. To describe the discrete bed-load dynamics, we propose a discrete spatiotemporal fractional advection-dispersion equation (D-FADE) without relying on the debatable assumption of a continuous sediment distribution. The new model is then applied to explore nonlinear dynamics of bed-load transport in flumes. Results show that, first, the D-FADE model can capture the temporal memory and spatial dependency characteristics of bed-load transport for sediment with different sizes. Second, fine sediment particles exhibit stronger super-diffusive features, while coarse particles exhibit significant subdiffusive properties, likely due to the size-selective memory impact. Third, sediment transport with an instantaneous source exhibits stronger history memory and weaker spatial nonlocality, compared to that with a continuous source (since a smaller number of particles might be blocked or buried relatively easier). Hence, the D-FADE provides a strict computational model to quantify discrete bed-load transport, whose nonlinear dynamics can be sensitive to particle sizes and source injection modes, both common in applications.