Author(s): Fabian Friedl; Volker Weitbrecht; Robert M. Boes
Linked Author(s): Robert Boes, Volker Weitbrecht
Keywords: Bank erosion; Sediment replenishment; River restoration; Gravel-bed river
Abstract: Predicting and quantifying bank erosion plays an important role in risk management, for river restoration strategies and to enhance the understanding of river morphodynamics. The triggering mechanisms for bank erosion, namely hydraulicfluvial processes and geotechnical mass failures, are influenced by a wide range of factors. Serious progress has been made in the last decades in understanding the influence of different processes on bank stability. Furthermore, various numerical models for the prediction of changes of the channel width due to bank erosion were developed. In this paper an overview of the topic of bank erosion and bank stability in gravel-bed rivers is presented. The most important concepts to describe fluvial bank erosion in non-cohesive material are discussed. Furthermore, a summary of the state-of-the-art in numerical modelling is given and the corresponding field data and laboratory experiments are described. Research gaps are identified, the main limitations of existing models are summarized and ideas for future research are given.
Year: 2015