Overview
Changes in level and composition of the bed of surface water systems may affect both their economic and ecological functions. It is therefore often desirable to predict trends in bed level and composition due to human interventions or autonomous natural developments. This facilitates, for instance, a habitat assessment of future Building with Nature projects. A sand-mud bed composition module has been developed to predict of bed level and composition changes as computed from deposition and erosion of multiple sediment fractions. Depending on the mud fraction, the bed may behave cohesive or non-cohesive, resulting in different erosion behaviour. The bed module consists of multiple layers and may include mixing by bioturbation or bedform migration. The bed module is open-source and has been developed by Deltares. It is available both within Delft3D and as a stand-alone tool.
Type: Model
Project Phase: Planning & Design
Type of assessment: Impact Assesment
Purpose: Predict changes in bed level and composition resulting from deposition and erosion processes
Requirements: Basic modelling skills; knowledge on sediment transport; field data on bed composition
Relevant Software: Delft3D; also available as stand-alone tool
