Deriving the relationship among discharge, biomass and Manning's coefficient through a calibration approach

• Published in: Hydrological processes Vol. 25; no. 12; pp. 1979 - 1995
• Main Authors: De Doncker, L., Troch, P., Verhoeven, R., Buis, K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 15.06.2011
• Subjects: Biomass; Calibration; Coefficients; environmental engineering; flood routing; Fluid flow; Hydrodynamics; Mathematical models; Modelling; vegetated rivers
• ISSN: 0885-6087; 1099-1085; 1099-1085
• DOI: 10.1002/hyp.7978

The subject of environmental engineering is currently of great interest. Field experiments as well as numerical models have proven their worth in this research field. An introduction to hydrodynamic modelling, coupled to the modelling of vegetation biomass is described. The developed Strive (STream RIVer Ecosystem) model is set up in the Femme (‘Flexible Environment for Mathematically Modelling the Environment’) environment and has already proven its worth in a large number of calculations (De Doncker et al., 2006, 2008b). Discharges and water levels are modelled together with modelling of electrical conductivity (EC). Extensive measurement campaigns are carried out to collect a large number of observations and calibration of the model is based on this data set. Furthermore, calibration methods and the discussion of this process are displayed. As a result, it is seen that the developed Strive model can model both, hydrodynamic and ecological processes, in an accurate way. The work highlights the importance of detailed determination of Manning's coefficient, dependent on discharge and amount of biomass, as an important calibration parameter for accurate modelling. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.