Geomorphic Approaches To Integrated Floodplain Management Of Lowland Fluvial Systems In North America And Europe

This volume provides a comprehensive perspective on geomorphic approaches to management of lowland alluvial rivers in North America and Europe. Many lowland rivers have been heavily managed for flood control and navigation for decades or centuries, resulting in engineered channels and embanked floodplains with substantially altered sediment loads and geomorphic processes. Over the past decade, floodplain management of many lowland rivers has taken on new importance because of concerns about the potential for global environmental change to alter floodplain processes, necessitating revised management strategies that minimize flood risk while enhancing environmental attributes of floodplains influenced by local embankments and upstream dams. Recognition of the failure of old perspectives on river management and the need to enhance environmental sustainability has stimulated a new approach to river management. The manner that river restoration and integrated management are implemented, however, requires a case study approach that takes into account the impact of historic human impacts to the system, especially engineering. The river basins examined in this volume provide a representative coverage of the drainage of North America and Europe, taking into account a range of climatic and physiographic provinces. They include the 1) Sacramento (California, USA), 2) San Joaquin (California), 3) Missouri (Missouri, USA), 4) Red (Manitoba, Canada and Minnesota, USA), 5) Mississippi (Louisiana, USA), 6) Kissimmee (Florida, USA), 7) Ebro (Spain), 8) Rhone (France), 9) Rhine (Netherlands), 10) Danube (Romania), and 11) Volga (Russian Federation) Rivers. The case studies covered in these chapters span a range of fluvial modes of adjustment, including sediment, channel, hydrologic regime, floodplains, as well as ecosystem and environmental associations.

Examines interrelations between flood management, flooding, and environmental change, for advanced students, researchers, and practitioners.

Rivers are the great shapers of terrestrial landscapes. Very few points on Earth above sea level do not lie within a drainage basin. Even points distant from the nearest channel are likely to be influenced by that channel. Tectonic uplift raises rock thousands of meters above sea level. Precipitation falling on the uplifted terrain concentrates into channels that carry sediment downward to the oceans and influence the steepness of adjacent hill slopes by governing the rate at which the landscape incises. Rivers migrate laterally across lowlands, creating a complex topography of terraces, floodplain wetlands and channels. Subtle differences in elevation, grain size, and soil moisture across this topography control the movement of ground water and the distribution of plants and animals. Rivers in the Landscape, Second Edition, emphasizes general principles and conceptual models, as well as concrete examples of each topic drawn from the extensive literature on river process and form. The book is suitable for use as a course text or a general reference on rivers. Aimed at advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and professionals looking for a concise summary of physical aspects of rivers, Rivers in the Landscape is designed to: emphasize the connectivity between rivers and the greater landscape by explicitly considering the interactions between rivers and tectonics, climate, biota, and human activities; provide a concise summary of the current state of knowledge for physical process and form in rivers; reflect the diversity of river environments, from mountainous, headwater channels to large, lowland, floodplain rivers and from the arctic to the tropics; reflect the diverse methods that scientists use to characterize and understand river process and form, including remote sensing, field measurements, physical experiments, and numerical simulations; reflect the increasing emphasis on quantification in fluvial geomorphology and the study of Earth surfaces in general; provide both an introduction to the classic, foundational papers on each topic, and a guide to the latest, particularly insightful and integrative references.

Sediment dynamics in fluvial systems is of great ecological, economic and human-health-related significance worldwide. Appropriate management strategies are therefore needed to limit maintenance costs as well as minimize potential hazards to the aquatic and adjacent environments. Human intervention, ranging from nutrient/pollutant release to physical modifications, has a large impact on sediment quantity and quality and thus on river morphology as well as on ecological functioning. Truly understanding sediment dynamics requires as a consequence a multidisciplinary approach.River Sedimentation contains the peer-reviewed scientific contributions presented at the 13th International Symposium on River Sedimentation (ISRS 2016, Stuttgart, Germany, 19-22 September 2016), and includes recent accomplishments in theoretical developments, numerical modelling, experimental laboratory work, field investigations and monitoring as well as management methodologies.

Introduction to temperate floodplains -- Hydrology -- Floodplain and geomorphology -- Biogeochemistry -- Ecology: introduction -- Floodplain forests -- Primary and secondary production -- Fish and other vertebrates -- Ecosystem services and floodplain reconciliation -- Floodplains as green infrastructure -- Case studies of floodplain management and reconciliation -- Central Valley floodplains: introduction and history -- Central Valley floodplains today -- Reconciling Central Valley floodplains -- Conclusions: managing temperate floodplains for multiple benefits

Classic Soft-Computing Techniques is the first volume of the three, in the Handbook of HydroInformatics series.? Through this comprehensive, 34-chapters work, the contributors explore the difference between traditional computing, also known as hard computing, and soft computing, which is based on the importance given to issues like precision, certainty and rigor. The chapters go on to define fundamentally classic soft-computing techniques such as Artificial Neural Network, Fuzzy Logic, Genetic Algorithm, Supporting Vector Machine, Ant-Colony Based Simulation, Bat Algorithm, Decision Tree Algorithm, Firefly Algorithm, Fish Habitat Analysis, Game Theory, Hybrid Cuckoo–Harmony Search Algorithm, Honey-Bee Mating Optimization, Imperialist Competitive Algorithm, Relevance Vector Machine, etc.?It is a fully comprehensive handbook providing all the information needed around classic soft-computing techniques. This volume is a true interdisciplinary work, and the audience includes postgraduates and early career researchers interested in Computer Science, Mathematical Science, Applied Science, Earth and Geoscience, Geography, Civil Engineering, Engineering, Water Science, Atmospheric Science, Social Science, Environment Science, Natural Resources, and Chemical Engineering. Key insights from global contributors in the fields of data management research, climate change and resilience, insufficient data problem, etc. Offers applied examples and case studies in each chapter, providing the reader with real world scenarios for comparison. Introduces classic soft-computing techniques, necessary for a range of disciplines.

This is the only book to focus on the geomorphological landscapes of Canada West. It outlines the little-appreciated diversity of Canada’s landscapes, and the nature of the geomorphological landscape, which deserves wider publicity. Three of the most important geomorphological facts related to Canada are that 90% of its total area emerged from ice-sheet cover relatively recently, from a geological perspective; permafrost underlies 50% of its landmass and the country enjoys the benefits of having three oceans as its borders: the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Canada West is a land of extreme contrasts — from the rugged Cordillera to the wide open spaces of the Prairies; from the humid west-coast forests to the semi-desert in the interior of British Columbia and from the vast Mackenzie river system of the to small, steep, cascading streams on Vancouver Island. The thickest Canadian permafrost is found in the Yukon and extensive areas of the Cordillera are underlain by sporadic permafrost side-by-side with the never-glaciated plateaus of the Yukon. One of the curiosities of Canada West is the presence of volcanic landforms, extruded through the ice cover of the late Pleistocene and Holocene epochs, which have also left a strong imprint on the landscape. The Mackenzie and Fraser deltas provide the contrast of large river deltas, debouching respectively into the Arctic and Pacific oceans.

This book provides essential information and recent findings on hydro-environmental issues in the Lower Danube River, particularly its hydrological and hydromorphological processes; physico-chemical features; climate and water-related hazards; and not only the biodiversity and quality but also the sustainable management and governance of its hydro-environment. Accordingly, it presents a broad range of scientific information on the lower sector of the second-longest river in Europe, which holds major economic importance and has been severely impacted by human pressures, especially since the second part of the last century. The engineering works (e.g. dams, reservoirs, levees, channelization, etc.) on the Danube and its tributaries, despite their benefits to society, have altered its flow and significantly reduced its sediment load, with consequences for hydromorphological processes and aquatic ecosystems. These ecosystems have also been affected by pollution from various sources. To promote sustainable management of the Danube River and its watershed, several strategies and measures have been developed by a number of institutions, from the European level to the national and regional levels (commissions, national authorities, non-governmental organizations, etc.). Compared to the upper and middle sectors of the Danube, the lower sector has received less attention in the international scientific literature in terms of hydro-environmental issues. The book fills this gap and provides current and original insights and findings from recent studies conducted by scientists from three countries drained by the Lower Danube River and its tributaries: Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. This unique book will be of great scientific interest to professional engineers, policy planners and policymakers in the three countries mentioned above, helping them to implement their own sustainable development plans. It also offers a valuable resource for graduate students, researchers and stakeholders.