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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Mapping spatial distributions and uncertainty of water and sediment flux in a large gravel bed river reach using an acoustic Doppler current profiler
Contributor:
Rennie, Colin D.;
Church, Michael
Published:
American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2010
Published in:
Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 115 (2010) F3
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1029/2009jf001556
ISSN:
0148-0227
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
Spatial distributions of depth‐averaged water velocity, shear velocity, and apparent bed load velocity are mapped for the first time in a long reach of a wandering gravel bed river, lower Fraser River, British Columbia. Spatially intensive acoustic Doppler current profiler (aDcp) measurements were collected on the falling limbs of two freshets. Flow in the first year was near the threshold of motion, whereas in the second year discharge exceeded bankfull. Spatial distributions are interpolated from the point data using kriging. Joint density functions for shear velocity and flow depth throughout the reach are presented; marginal densities for shear velocity were near normally distributed but depth distributions were positively skewed by deep pools. The uncertainty of the spatial distributions is also assessed based on modeled temporal variability of the flow and bed load transport, measured aDcp error velocities, and calculated interpolation errors. The resulting maps are remarkably coherent, with maximum depth‐averaged velocity, shear velocity, and apparent bed load velocity following the thalweg. Largest values occur in channel bends at zones of flow convergence where the thalweg flow accelerates toward the bank. However, in the lower flow year the highest apparent bed load velocity was observed outside the thalweg in a deep pool downstream of a rapidly eroding cut bank. Erosion at this site was related to a flow confluence with relatively low shear but highly turbulent, strongly three‐dimensional separated flow.