Publication Date:
2019
Description:
Abstract
Nowadays, national and international requirements and laws emphasize the “natural” development of river‐floodplain systems. One goal is to increase the connectivity between the river and its floodplains and thus reactivate floodplains as flooding areas, which potentially increases the mobility of fine sediments. The objective of this study is to analyze the long‐term effects of reactivated floodplains on the mobility of floodplain deposits of small rivers based on two river restoration scenarios: elevating the riverbed or lowering the floodplains. Past channel fixation and degradation as well as the subsequent increase in the floodplain elevation led to the decoupling of the channel and floodplain morphodynamics associated with the reduction of the habitat connectivity. Here, the floodplain sedimentation rates were determined using a numerical model based on the Delft3D software. The novelty of this numerical investigations is the morphological long‐term analysis over time scales of decades, which is not comparable to other short‐term hydro‐ and morphodynamic studies for small meandering lowland rivers. The results of 11 river restoration scenarios show that lowering the floodplain and raising the riverbed elevation both lead to an increase in the fine sediment deposition on the floodplain. However, lowering the floodplain elevation is generally more effective. Based on the numerical model results and the assumption of a fixed river channel, only anthropogenic activity might have increased the amount of fine sediments deposited on floodplains and has accelerated the decoupling of the floodplains from the riverbed in the past centuries.
Print ISSN:
0043-1397
Electronic ISSN:
1944-7973
Topics:
Architecture, Civil Engineering, Surveying
,
Geography
