The UK’s climate is becoming wetter, with rain from extremely wet days increasing by 17%, comparing the period 2008-2017 to 1961-1990. DeLuca et al. (2017) demonstrate clearly that flooding was becoming more widespread with multi-basin flooding becoming more prevalent across the UK driven by clustered storm events, saturated antecedent conditions and overall increased precipitation linked to a warmer Atlantic Ocean. From these findings it may be expected that ‘channel forming’ or ‘bankfull’ flow conditions will occur more frequently. Such an eventuality will see enhanced physical response in UK rivers with change processes beginning to significantly alter river character and dynamics and impacting on river and valley bottom use and management.
As a direct result of changes in UK climate, the frequency of geomorphologically effective river flows is increasing. This will therefore impact both the physical form of our rivers and floodplains and alter the pattern of sediment erosion, transport and deposition with consequent impact on flooding patterns. This research provides an opportunity to improve our understanding of the effects of increasing geomorphologically effective river flows following restoration of natural river dynamics from previously engineered channels.
Never before has there been an opportunity the investigate such fluvial diversity in river restoration. Drone technology provides rapid response and resurvey opportunities to collect undisturbed data
The overarching aim of this work is to quantify the morphological response and coarse sediment dynamics of a number of restored alluvial watercourses across England. The research will elucidate on system robustness, sensitivity and potential channel type threshold crossing in the context of a changing climate.
To achieve this aim several initial objectives have been drafted.
- Quantify flood effectiveness based on threshold energy exceedance
- Quantify patterns and volumes of erosion, deposition and sediment flux
- Relate geomorphic change in terms of erosion, deposition and sediment transport to flow energy levels and develop a conceptual model for likely future change to UK rivers linked to an increasing frequency and duration of flows likely to cause change.
The project will help answer questions regarding how our rivers will evolve into the future and how these changes will impact on sediment transport allowing prediction of changes to sediment production, transport and storage which in turn will influence future channel management to help mitigate against excessive sediment issues in flood sensitive reaches.
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