Flow dynamics in rivers with riffle-pool morphology: a dataset from case studies and field experiments

Abstract

Abstract Bars and pools, common for natural riverbeds, form sequential patterns due to interactions between river flow, alluvium and vegetation. While the morphodynamics of bar-pool units are relatively well understood, far less is known about associated riffle-pool hydrodynamics because of a lack of high-resolution data collected in rivers and problems attaining natural scaling in laboratory studies. Here we present a dataset on turbulent flow structure in riffle-pool sequences of a natural river. Two case studies and two field-based experiments were carried out in a side branch of the braided gravel-bed Tagliamento River in Italy. Our case studies deliver detailed information about the three-dimensional structure of mean and turbulent flows in natural riffle-pool/run and pool-riffle/glide transitions. Field-based experiments completed with the in-stream flume models of a riffle-pool transition and a shallow jet model provide a methodological bridge for linking simplified hydrodynamic theories of shallow jets to complex flow structure documented by our case studies. Therefore, this dataset enables examination of scaling effects and can be widely used for validation of numerical models.