Sediment transport and storage in urban streams
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: Geography, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: McIntyre, Amy
issued: 2023-08-25T21:12:50Z
issued: 2023
related degree: Master of Science - MSc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Sediment pulses into gravel-bed rivers in mountainous basins, such as those found throughout BC, Canada, can alter river systems. Pulses are generated through hillslope erosion, landslides, and debris flows. Human activity such as mining and logging can increase the frequency and magnitude of these events. There is research regarding impacts of increased streamflow on urban river systems, however, there is relatively little research on the impact of increased sediment. Knowing how urban stream channels respond to sediment pulses can help guide stream management and restoration projects. Experiments were conducted using a generic physical model of a gravel bed stream at the University of British Columbia. Three physical model configurations were used: a model of a channelized urban stream; a model of a channelized urban stream with a widened central reach representing a restoration technique; and an urban stream with a widened reach has been reenforced with a layer stabilizing grains on the floodplain surface. Two main experiments were conducted on each configuration, one where sediment was kept constant and a second where sediment pulses were introduced to the channel. Overall, sediment pulses into urban streams result in increased bed elevation and channel flooding localized to the upstream area. The urban channelized stream was resilient to a 25% pulse, whilst widening a reach reduced sediment transport and was unable to cope with any sediment increase. This demonstrates that bank protection would need to be introduced to prevent aggradation even at the background sediment supply rate. The use of additional bank protection increased the resilience of the restored channel to sediment pulses by increasing sediment transport. However, this set up flooded at the 25% pulse. Even with mitigation, the fully channelized urban streams are most resilient to increases in sediment supply.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/85639
note: Sediment transport and storage in urbanstreamsbyAmy McIntyreB.Sc. Geography, University of York, UK, 2020A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THEREQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OFMaster of ScienceinTHE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES(Geography)THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA(Vancouver)August 2023© Amy McIntyre, 2023The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate andPostdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled:Sediment transport and storage in urban streamssubmitted by Amy McIntyre in partial fulfillment of the requirements forthe degree of Master of Sciencein GeographyExamining Committee:Brett Eaton, Professor, Geography, UBCSupervisorIan McKendry, Professor, Geography, UBCSupervisory Committee MemberLucy MacKenzie, Water Resources Scientist, BGC EngineeringAdditional ExamineriiAbstractSediment pulses into gravel-bed rivers in mountainous basins, such as those found through-out BC, Canada, can alter river systems. Pulses are generated through hillslope erosion,landslides, and debris flows. Human activity such as mining and logging can increase thefrequency and magnitude of these events. There is research regarding impacts of increasedstreamflow on urban river systems, however, there is relatively little research on the impactof increased sediment. Knowing how urban stream channels respond to sediment pulses canhelp guide stream management and restoration projects.Experiments were conducted using a generic physical model of a gravel bed streamat the University of British Columbia. Three physical model configurations were used: amodel of a channelized urban stream; a model of a channelized urban stream with a widenedcentral reach representing a restoration technique; and an urban stream with a widenedreach has been reenforced with a layer stabilizing grains on the floodplain surface. Two mainexperiments were conducted on each configuration, one where sediment was kept constantand a second …
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2023-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0435595
language: eng
degree discipline: Geography
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Eaton, Brett C.
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85639