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River engineering
Published in Mohammad Albaji, Introduction to Water Engineering, Hydrology, and Irrigation, 2022
River engineering is the process of human planned actions in the course, characteristics, or flow of a river for some certain uses. Before recorded history, humans have intervened in the natural conditions of rivers for some purposes including managing the water resources, protecting against flooding, make passage along or across rivers easier. Rivers have been used as a source of hydropower since Roman times. With the spread of environmental concerns in the late 20th century, today the main purpose of some river engineering projects is protecting environment with some actions like the restoration or protection of natural characteristics and habitats (Figure 2.1).
Assessment and prioritization strategies for scour critical bridges
Published in Hiroshi Yokota, Dan M. Frangopol, Bridge Maintenance, Safety, Management, Life-Cycle Sustainability and Innovations, 2021
The environmental permitting process can have a significant effect on the planning, design and implementation of river engineering works. Often, permitting can become a lengthy process for the implementation of bridge scour and stream instability countermeasures (Lagasse et al. 2009).
How to design wood accumulation patches to increase flow variability and deposition – a flume study
Published in Wim Uijttewaal, Mário J. Franca, Daniel Valero, Victor Chavarrias, Clàudia Ylla Arbós, Ralph Schielen, Alessandra Crosato, River Flow 2020, 2020
Many rivers worldwide have been confined for river engineering purposes and consequently exhibit sediment deficit and morphological degradation. The restoration of river habitat has become a critical problem throughout the world, with prominent activities in Europe, Australia and the USA, representing projects worth billions of dollars (Wohl et al. 2015). For example, the revised Swiss Water Protection Act demands the restoration of 4,000 eco-morphologically impaired river kilometers by 2090. In addition, sediment continuum and aquatic organism passage (migration of fish and other organisms) must be restored at water bodies compromised by river infrastructures by 2030 (Göggel 2012).
Quantification of effects of climate change on flood in tropical river basins
Published in Cogent Engineering, 2021
The long-term descriptive character of the atmospheric conditions of a particular place is known as the Climate (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC], 2014). According to Karl et al. (2009), climate expresses various elements of weather by means of averages and the probabilities of other conditions inclusive of extreme values. According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] (2016) Climate change refers to a statistically significant variation in the mean state of the climate or in its variability persisting over an extended period, normally decades or longer. Therefore, climate change refers to a significant change in the average weather conditions experienced in a particular region or location. The changes could be seen with respect to a significant change in perceived temperature of the region, the amount of rainfall experienced in the region, duration of exposure of the ground to sunlight, etc. The change in water discharge and sediment load of rivers as a response to these climatic changes and human activities became an important topic in hydrological studies (Khan, Daityari, et al., 2016). The change may occur over periods ranging from decades to millennia (Brikowski, 2008; Huntington et al., 2009; Xie et al., 2010). Many research works (Hall & Crovetti, 2007; Homer et al., 2015; Juckem et al., 2008; Karishma et al., 2016; Ryberg et al., 2015), are suggesting that extreme weather conditions including more high-intensity rainfall events will be witnessed in the future incidences of climate change. There is a likelihood that flood menace will increase, especially in areas where the water channel adjusts to differing flow regimes. Impacts of climate change are broadly classified into environmental, agricultural, economic, health and other socio-economic groups by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Poff, 1996). River engineering practices, river training, river management, and the design of water constructions as well as power plant intakes are greatly dependent on river flow variations due to many factors, including climate change etc. (Khan, Hasan, et al., 2016). From the assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, Africa with an average surface temperature increase of about 3.4°C relative to the period between 1980 and 1990, is probably going to be warmer than the rest of the world by the end of the twenty-first century. As a result of the above, it is therefore imperative to study, analyze and understand the futuristic effect of this climate change on the hydrological cycle.