Development and Testing of Riverbank-Stability Analysis
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Abstract:
The ability to predict the stability of eroding riverbanks is a prerequisite for modeling alluvial channel width adjustments and a requirement for predicting bank-erosion rates and sediment yield associated with bank erosion. However, there are a number of limitations of existing bank-stability analyses that limit their physical basis and predictive ability. Some of these limitations are addressed through the development of a new bank-stability analysis. The new approach is applicable to steep, cohesive, nonlayered riverbanks that fail along planar failure surfaces. Pore-water and hydrostatic confining pressure terms are included in the analysis. The failure plane is not constrained to pass through the toe of the bank. The predictive abilities of four bank-stability analyses (Lohnes and Handy 1968; Huang 1983; Osman and Thorne 1988; and the present analysis) were assessed using field data. The new analysis is the most successful of the tested analyses in terms of predicting the stability of riverbanks with respect to mass failure.Keywords:
Bank failure
Bank erosion
Hydrostatic equilibrium
Limit Analysis
Bank
The ability to predict the stability of eroding riverbanks is a prerequisite for modeling alluvial channel width adjustments and a requirement for predicting bank-erosion rates and sediment yield associated with bank erosion. However, there are a number of limitations of existing bank-stability analyses that limit their physical basis and predictive ability. Some of these limitations are addressed through the development of a new bank-stability analysis. The new approach is applicable to steep, cohesive, nonlayered riverbanks that fail along planar failure surfaces. Pore-water and hydrostatic confining pressure terms are included in the analysis. The failure plane is not constrained to pass through the toe of the bank. The predictive abilities of four bank-stability analyses (Lohnes and Handy 1968; Huang 1983; Osman and Thorne 1988; and the present analysis) were assessed using field data. The new analysis is the most successful of the tested analyses in terms of predicting the stability of riverbanks with respect to mass failure.
Bank failure
Bank erosion
Hydrostatic equilibrium
Limit Analysis
Bank
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Few studies have considered downstream changes in bank erosion rates and variability along single river systems. This paper reports some preliminary results of an intensive and direct field monitoring exercise of bank erosion rates on 11 sites along 130 km of the 3315 km2 Swale-Ouse river system in northern England over a 14·5 month period. Data were collected at active sites using grid networks of erosion pins read at c. 18–30 day intervals and bank-line resurveys. Erosion rates were relatively high for a river of this scale: spatially averaged bank erosion magnitudes over the 14·5 months varied from 82·7 mm to 440·1 mm, although at one highly mobile reach retreat of 1760 mm was recorded over 4 months. Bank erosion rates tended to peak in mid-basin, possibly because of an optimum combination there of high stream powers and erodible bank materials, as predicted theoretically by Lawler (1992, 1995). The piedmont (upland–lowland transition) zone was especially active. Graphical erosion representations for specific periods, however, showed that bank retreat was often highly localized within individual sites. Strong seasonal variations in erosion rate were also observed with a significant winter (December–March) peak. A novel finding, however, was the apparent downstream increase in the length of the erosion 'season', with measurable retreat occurring at the lower sites from September to July. This is interpreted as a reflection of a richer mix of bank erosion processes at the downstream sites, where mass failure, fluid entrainment and weathering processes are all active, with each process group having its own, but overlapping, temporal (seasonal) domain. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bank erosion
Bank
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Abstract Understanding the physical processes as well as the hydrological and morphological factors that influence channel bank erosion is important for river restoration and the management of the floodplain and associated ecosystems. In this study, we introduced an innovative approach to quantify river bank erosion and its contribution to a reach fine sediment budget by combining repeat bank erosion surveys using a jetboat‐mounted LiDAR scanner with concurrent high‐frequency suspended sediment load measurements into and out of the surveyed reach. Using this information, we established a sediment budget for a 5.5‐km‐long study reach of the lower Ōreti River, Southland, New Zealand. A total of three surveys were conducted along the study reach to understand changes in the bank erosion contribution to suspended sediment load at different time scales. The first two surveys were separated by a short period of 8 weeks, and the third survey followed 2.5 years later. The measured volumes of fine sediment rendered from bank erosion equated to 25% and 29% of the measured outflowing suspended load over these two inter‐survey epochs, respectively. By comparison, the net contribution of measured bank erosion and derived fine sediment deposition on the riverbed to the outflowing suspended load was 12% over the first, shorter epoch and 25% for the second, 2.5‐year epoch. These results highlight the important role of in‐channel sediment deposition in the variability of net suspended sediment exports from channel reaches experiencing bank erosion. The approach used in this study has a unique capability to accurately monitor bank erosion and obtain high‐resolution topography data capturing changes in river banks over different time periods.
Bank erosion
Sedimentary budget
Deposition
Bank
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