The performance of stream restoration projects depends essentially on the supply of both water and sediment. An inability to predict sediment supply is a leading barrier to development of predictive stream restoration design. This research area includes research on bedload transport, sediment exchange and storage on the floodplain, and sediment yield from landscapes intermediate between the steep headwater conditions and the deposition conditions of the deltas.
Research Plans
Fine sediment routing through steep and low gradient systems
Development of reach-averaged sediment routing models with explicit sediment storage functions for both sand and gravel rivers
Establish sediment fingerprinting methods for sediment source and history
Evaluate geochemical fingerprinting and physical sediment budgets for the same time scale in the same watershed
Incorporate valley bottom sediment storage and streambank erosion in network routing models
Research gathered
Laboratory modeling of tie channel formation
Research on channel planform and geometry through physical modeling experiments that incorporate vegetation
Modeling of contaminant deposition on, residence in, and erosion from river floodplains
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