River improvement techniques for mitigating river bed degradation and channel width reduction in the sandy Hii River where sediment transport occurs at normal times

Abstract

In the sandy Hii River, a large amount of sediment yield from upper river basin had brought developments of braided channels covered with sand waves. In the braided channels, sediment materials on the river beds are capable to move in normal discharge conditions. In recent years, however, the sediment yield decreases due to constructions of check dams and ground sills in the upper river basin. Thus, the river beds downstream of the ground sill have gradually degraded and the main channel widths have been narrowed with the progressing bed degradation. Firstly, we clarified that the effects of non-equilibrium sediment transports around the ground sill during normal discharge conditions on the bed degradation and the channel width reduction by using annual observed data and numerical simulations for bed variations. In addition, we provided the river improvement techniques for mitigating bed degradation and channel width reduction by improving state of non-equilibrium sediment transports passing through the ground sill.