Author(s): Grace Bissemo; Santiago Yepez; Guy D. Moukandi N’Kaya; Mauricio Bermudez; Levy Ayissou; Carlo Gualtieri

Linked Author(s): Carlo Gualtieri

Keywords: River hydrodynamics; Sediment transport; Congo River; ADCP; Water sampling

Abstract: The Congo River is the second largest river in the world in terms of basin area and discharge. Several field studies were carried out from 2010 to 2019 under different flow conditions due to the cooperation among SCVNGIE, the ECHOBACO Project and HYBAM to characterize hydrodynamics and sediment transport in the reach close to the city of Brazzaville (Republic of the Congo) and Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) and in that about the city of Maluku. During these field campaigns Acoustic Doppler Velocity Profiling (ADCP) was used as well as water sampling for the TSS measurement. The ADCP measurements gained a comprehensive characterization of the basic hydrodynamics and sediment transport parameters in those reaches as well as their variation in different flow conditions during the hydrological year. The discharge was in the range from 24000 to 66000 m3/s. Large velocities up to almost 3 m/s were observed in Brazzaville-Kinshasa, while water depth was in the range from 9 to 23 m from low to high flow conditions. Finally, grain-related bed shear stress distribution identified dominant transport mode and maximum suspended grain size, being in the range order of fine sands for each flow condition. At the end, this study is the first comprehensive analysis of hydrodynamics and sediment transport in the Congo River using a combination of field data over about a decade.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/978-90-833476-1-5_iahr40wc-p0616-cd

Year: 2023