Background
The Rhine River is the most important waterway in Europe. It connects the port of Rotterdam with inland industrial areas. Bed evolution of the Rhine River by erosion and sedimentation has been studied for years based on bed level surveys and transport measurements of bed load and suspended load. The subtraction of bed level data from two different time periods shows whether the river bed is subject to erosion or sedimentation, which is the most essential morphological information needed by river managers. Transport measurements also provide information on the types of sediments involved (e.g., gravel or sand) and on the mechanism of sediment transport (suspended load or bed load). However, both echo soundings and transport measurements fail to provide answers to essential questions such as: (1) Where are the sediments transported by the river coming from?, (2) Where are the eroded sediments going to? and (3) How is the morphological development in one part of the catchment linked to changes in other parts of the catchment? This kind of information is crucial for a real understanding of a river system and for optimizing sediment management strategies. It can only be obtained through the construction of a sediment budget, which is the balance between the amount of sediment entering a study area, the amount of sediment leaving the study area and the (change in) sediment storage in the study area itself.
In a joint research project, the Federal Institute of Hydrology and the RWTH Aachen University developed a sediment budget of the Rhine River from the source to the mouth, differentiated for size fractions stones, coarse gravel, fine gravel, sand and fines (silt and clay). During the seminar, the sediment budget is presented and gaps in knowledge and uncertainties are discussed. Special focus will be on sources and sinks of different grain size fractions and their impact on the sediment budget and the river bed evolution.
Objectives
- to discuss potential consequences of the sediment budget analysis on river management
- to identify gaps in knowledge on sediment transport processes within the Rhine catchment
- to assess methods to reduce uncertainties, e.g. in load measurements
1_0chr_2015_moser_general_introduction.pdf
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 1_0chr_2015_moser_general_introduction.pdf | (876.16 KB) |
1_1chr_2015_hillebrand_introduction.pdf
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| 1_1chr_2015_hillebrand_introduction.pdf | (734.79 KB) |
1_2chr_2015_frings_therhinebasin.pdf
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| 1_2chr_2015_frings_therhinebasin.pdf | (14.4 MB) |
1_3chr_2015_hillebrand_sediment_budget_method.pdf
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| 1_3chr_2015_hillebrand_sediment_budget_method.pdf | (1.09 MB) |
2_1chr_2015_banhold_sandloss.pdf
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| 2_1chr_2015_banhold_sandloss.pdf | (951.47 KB) |
2_2chr_2015_astor_suspended_load.pdf
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| 2_2chr_2015_astor_suspended_load.pdf | (1.48 MB) |
2_3chr_2015_banhold_floodplain.pdf
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| 2_3chr_2015_banhold_floodplain.pdf | (1.33 MB) |
3_1chr_2015_frings_rhine_budget_2slides.pdf
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| 3_1chr_2015_frings_rhine_budget_2slides.pdf | (339.59 KB) |
3_2chr_2015_vollmer_sediment_budget_of_fines.pdf
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| 3_2chr_2015_vollmer_sediment_budget_of_fines.pdf | (2.32 MB) |
4_1chr_2015_belleudy_bedloadmonitoring.pdf
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| 4_1chr_2015_belleudy_bedloadmonitoring.pdf | (23.01 MB) |
4_2chr_2015_vanderperk_sediment_budgeting.pdf
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| 4_2chr_2015_vanderperk_sediment_budgeting.pdf | (2.3 MB) |
5_2chr_2015_blom_sediment_supply_data.pdf
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| 5_2chr_2015_blom_sediment_supply_data.pdf | (3.28 MB) |
Day 1 – 25 March 2015:
Presentation of the research project “From source to mouth, a sediment budget of the Rhine River”
| Session 1: | Background |
| 13:00 – 13:15 | Welcome, general introduction – Hans Moser, President of CHR |
| 13:15 – 13:30 | Introduction to the project “From source to mouth, a sediment budget of the Rhine River” – Gudrun Hillebrand, Federal Institute of Hydrology, Koblenz |
| 13:30 – 13:50 | The Rhine basin – Roy Frings, RWTH Aachen University |
| 13:50 – 14:10 | Sediment budget analysis – Method and data set – Gudrun Hillebrand, Federal Institute of Hydrology, Koblenz |
| 14:10 – 14:40 | Coffee / Tea break |
| Session 2: | Laboratory and field studies contributing to the sediment budget |
| 14:40 – 15:00 | Sand loss during bed load sampling – Karin Banhold, RWTH Aachen University |
| 15:00 – 15:20 | Estimating sand content of suspended loads – Birgit Astor, Federal Institute of Hydrology, Koblenz |
| 15:20 – 15:40 | Sedimentation on flood plains by radioactive dating – Karin Banhold, RWTH Aachen University |
| 15:40 – 16:10 | Coffee / Tea break |
| Session 3: | Sediment budget |
| 16:10 – 16:55 | Basin-scale morphodynamics of sand and gravel – Roy Frings RWTH Aachen University |
| 16:55 – 17:20 | Sediment budget of fines – Stefan Vollmer, Federal Institute of Hydrology, Koblenz |
| 17:20 – 17:45 | Discussion |
| ca. 17:45 | Closure day 1 |
19:30 - Seminar dinner
Day 2 – 26 March 2015: Contributions of members of the projects’ advisory board and guests
| Session 4 | Process knowledge gaps |
| 08:30 – 08:40 | Introduction to day 2 |
| 08:40 – 09:00 | Spatio temporal variability of sediment transport at various scales – Helmut Habersack, BOKU University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna |
| 09:00 – 09:20 | Dynamics of sedimentation of groyne fields – Nils Huber, Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute, Karlsruhe |
| 09:20 – 09:40 | Soil erosion and sediment yield – Thomas Hoffmann, University of Bonn |
| 09:40 – 10:00 | Applicability of measurement devices to determine sediment loads on different temporal scales – Philippe Belleudy, University of Grenoble |
| 10:00 – 10:20 | Sediment budgeting on event scale vs. long-term evolution – Marcel van der Perk, Utrecht University |
| 10:20 – 10:50 | Coffee / Tea break |
| Session 5 | Use of sediment budgets in ecology, morphology and flood control |
| 10:50 – 11:10 | Passability for sediments – impact on ecology – Jürg Bloesch, EAWAG, Zürich |
| 11:10 – 11:30 | The importance of sediment supply data to modelling river morphodynamics – Astrid Blom, TU Delft |
| 11:30 – 11:50 | Morphology and floods in the Alpine region – Benno Zarn, Hunziker, Zarn & Partner AG, Domat/Ems |
| Session 6 | Outlook CHR research agenda |
| 11:50 – 12:10 | Use of the sediment budget analysis – Wilfried ten Brinke, Blueland Consultancy, Utrecht |
| 12:10 – 13:00 | Discussion and wrap up |
| 13:00 | Closing of the spring seminar |