Sediment Transfer through the Fluvial System (Proceedings of a symposium held in Moscow, August 2004). IAHS Publ. 288, 2004, 404–409


A particle tracking method to simulate sediment transfer over flood plains

IVO THONON, KOR DE JONG, MARCEL VAN DER PERK & HANS MIDDELKOOP

Centre for Geo-ecological Research (icg), Faculteit Geowetenschappen, Universiteit Utrecht, Postbus 80115,
3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands

i.thonon@geog.uu.nl

Abstract Deposition of contaminated sediments during high discharges is an important aspect on lowland river flood plains. Quantification of deposition often proceeds through modelling. However, raster-based sedimentation models in particular suffer from numerical dispersion in the sediment-transfer routine. To simulate conveyance of sediments over flood plains without introducing numerical dispersion, we developed a sediment-transfer model in which we implemented the particle tracking method "Method of Characteristics". This raster-based model uses input data such as initial concentrations, water levels, flow velocities and dispersion coefficients. In the future, we will use this model as part of a flood plain sedimentation model.

Key words flood plain; Method of Characteristics; modelling; numerical dispersion; particle tracking; Rhine River; sedimentation; suspended sediment