RIVER ENGINEERING

Introduction:

What is River Engineering?

• River engineering is a discipline of civil engineering which studies human intervention in the
course, characteristics or flow of a river with the intention of producing some defined benefit.

The need for River Engineering:

• Construction of bridges is the need for carrying the rail-tracks and road across the rivers.
• Hydroelectricity can be generated by utilizing the hydropower of flowing water.
• In order to meet the need the irrigation and protection from floods, dams on the river are
inevitable.
• By regulating the river channels the objective of navigation and flood control can be achieved.
• Sand, sediments, and gravels are deposited by the rivers in depositional landform, which are
used as a fundamental construction material for roads, buildings, and other types of
infrastructure.
• River deposits reduce the storing capacity and life of the artificial reservoirs, which is a point of
concern for the engineers.

River
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake
or another river.
SOME BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF RIVERS

• Rivers have a wide range in size (as measured by either water discharge, sediment discharge, or
length).
• Rivers have a wide range of water discharge and an even wider range of Sediment discharge, as
a function of time.
• Rivers are curvy; they are seldom straight for a long distance.
• Rivers don’t stay in one place: they shift laterally in various ways and at various rates, so there’s
at least temporary deposition at many places in The river system.

• Rivers have a long history.

Classification of rivers is mainly based on the topography of the river or the basis of flood hydrographs.

Classification based on topography:

Under this type of classification, rivers are subdivided into 3 types -

Rivers in hills (Upper reaches): These rivers generally take off from the mountains and flow through
the hilly regions before traversing the planes.

They are further subdivided into-

Incised or Rocky River stage: In this type flow channel is formed by the process of erosion. The
sediment transported in this reach is often different from the river bed materials, since most of it comes
from the catchment denudation and soil erosion

Boulder River stage: The river bed in these reaches consists of a mixture of boulders, gravels, shingles,
and alluvial sand deposits created by itself. During a flood, the boulders, shingles, and gravels are
transported downstream. But as the flood subsides the materials get deposited in heaps.

Rivers in alluvial flood plains (Lower reaches): The chief characteristic of these river reaches is the “Zig-
Zag’’ fashion in which they flow, called meandering. They meander freely from one place to another and
carry sediment which is similar to bed material. The material gets eroded from the concave bank(i.e.
Outer edge) and gets deposited on the convex bank(i.e. Inner edge) of successive bends or between two
successive bends to form a bar.

Further subdivided into-

Aggrading type: An aggrading river is a silting river. Such a river increases its bed slope, which is called
building up of slope.

• Silting may occur due to various reasons such as-

• Heavy sediment load.
• Construction of an obstruction across the river, such as a dam or a weir.
• The sudden intrusion of sediment from a tributary etc.

Degrading type: If the river bed is getting constantly scoured to reduce and dissipate available excess
land slope, then the river is known as a degrading river. Found either above the cut-off or below the
dam or weir etc.

Stable type: A river that does not change its alignment, slope, its regime significantly is known as stable
river. Changes such as silting or scouring or advancement of the delta into the sea may take place, but
they are negligible and fail to produce and change in the regime of the channel.

Braided type: When the river flows in two or more channels around alluvial islands, it is known as a
braided river. The braided pattern develops due to the deposition of coarse materials, which cannot be
transported under prevailing conditions of flow and which subsequently grow into islands consisting of
coarse as well as fine materials.

Delta type: A river before it joins the sea, gets divided into branches, thus forming a delta shape. As the
river approaches the sea, its velocity decreases, and consequently the channel gets silted, and the water
level rises in spills and eventually the formation of a new channel.

Tidal Rivers: The tail reaches of the river adjoining the ocean are affected by the tides in the ocean.
During floods, the ocean water enters the river and the water level rises. But during ebb tide, the water
level falls as the water flows out. Therefore, the river undergoes periodical rise and fall in water level,
depending upon the nature of the tide.

Classification based on flood hydrographs:

Under this type of classification, a river is divided into two types-

Flashy Rivers: If the flood rise and the flood fall in the river are sudden, then the river is known as a
flashy river. In a flashy river, the flood flow occurs suddenly and therefore, the rise and fall of water are
very quick. The flood hydrograph is very steep, indicating floods all of sudden.

Virgin Rivers: In the Arid zone, a river may completely dry before it meets the river or before meeting
another river, such a river is known as the virgin river. After flowing through a certain region, the water
of such a river disappears due to high percolation or due to excessive evaporation.

Indian Rivers and their classification:

Apart from the above classification mentioned, Indian rivers are mainly classified based on their contact
with the Himalayas. Hence Indian rivers are classified as follows-

Himalayan Rivers: These rivers take off the Himalayas and flow through alluvial plains. They mainly
derive water from rain during monsoon and winter and melting of snow in summer. These rivers are
therefore perennial and can give dependable yields throughout the year.

Himalayan rivers carry huge sediment because of two reasons-

• The Himalayan rocks are soft and friable.

• The Himalayan zone, particularly the North-Eastern part is susceptible to earthquake
disturbances, causing landslides and increasing rock sediment.

Examples of Himalayan rivers are- Ganga, Brahmaputra, Ravi, Gomti, Sutlej, Indus, Jhelum, etc. Due to
heavy rainfall in July and August, these North Indian rivers rise in high floods. These large variations in
discharge and sediment load make the hydraulics of these rivers very complex and cause them to
meander.

Non-Himalayan Rivers: These are non-perennial rivers that receive major water supply only in rainy
seasons and for the rest of the year, they may draw water from ground water as a base flow. These
rivers are much more stable than the Himalayan rivers and have lesser problems, as they flow through
non-alluvial soil. The line dividing the Himalayan and the Non-Himalayan river is the boundary hatched
by the left bank of river Sutlej, the right bank of Yamuna and Ganga, and the left bank of Brahmaputra.
Examples of Non-Himalayan rivers are- Chambal, Cauvery, Mahanadi, Godavari, Tapti, Narmada, etc.
Loads in a river
The load is the total amount of sediment being transported. There are 3 types of sediment load in the
river: dissolved, suspended, and bed load.

1. Bed load:- Bedload consists of coarse particles, usually sand, gravel or coarser particles
which roll, slide or saltate on or close to the riverbed. Bedload occurs mainly during high
flow periods, when the exerted forces on the riverbed exceed the critical shear stress for
incipient motion of the bed material.

• Bed load is complementary to suspended load and wash load.

• Bed load moves by rolling, sliding, and/or saltating (hopping).

• Generally, bed load downstream will be smaller and more rounded than bed load upstream (a
process known as downstream fining).

• This is due in part to attrition and abrasion which results from the stones colliding with each
other and against the river channel, thus removing the rough texture (rounding) and reducing
the size of the particles.

2. Suspended Load –
• The suspended load of a flow of fluid, such as a river, is the portion of its sediment
uplifted by the fluid's flow in the process of sediment transportation.
• It is kept suspended by the fluid's turbulence.
• The suspended load generally consists of smaller particles, like clay, silt, and fine
sands.

3. Wash Load :-
• That part of the suspended load which is composed of particle sizes smaller than
those found in appreciable quantities in the bed material. It is in near-permanent
suspension and, therefore, is transported through the stream without deposition.
• The fine sediments that are in the wash load are generally smaller than .0625
mm, but what determines the wash load in reality is the relationship between
the size of the bed load and the size of the particles that never settle in the
"fine sediment load" or wash load.
• Wash load grains tend to be very small (mostly clay and silts, but also some
fine sands) and therefore have a small settling velocity, being kept in
suspension by the flow turbulence.
 Saltation method of Bed load Transportation

Saltation is a specific type of particle transport by fluids such as wind or water. It occurs
when loose materials are removed from a bed and carried by the fluid, before being
transported back to the surface.
Examples include pebble transport by rivers, sand drift over desert surfaces, soil blowing
over fields, and snow drift over smooth surfaces such as arctic prairies.

• At low fluid velocities, loose material rolls downstream, staying in contact with the
surface. This is called creep or reptation. Here the forces exerted by the fluid on the
particle are only enough to roll the particle around the point of contact with the
surface.

• Once the wind speed reaches a certain critical value, termed the impact or fluid
threshold, the drag and lift forces exerted by the fluid are sufficient to lift some
particles from the surface. These particles are accelerated by the fluid, and pulled
downward by gravity, causing them to travel in roughly ballistic trajectories.

• If a particle has obtained sufficient speed from the acceleration by the fluid, it can
eject, or splash, other particles in saltation, which propagates the process.
Depending on the surface, the particle could also disintegrate on impact, or eject
much finer sediment from the surface.
• In air, this process of saltation bombardment creates most of the dust in dust
storms.

• In rivers, this process repeats continually, gradually eroding away the river bed, but
also transporting-in fresh material from upstream.

River morphology

• The terms river morphology and its synonym stream morphology are used to
describe the shapes of river channels and how they change in shape and direction
over time.
• The morphology of a river channel is a function of a number of processes and
environmental conditions, including the composition and erodibility of the bed and
banks (e.g., sand, clay, bedrock); erosion comes from the power and consistency of
the current, and can effect the formation of the river’s path.
• Also, vegetation and the rate of plant growth; the availability of sediment; the size
and composition of the sediment moving through the channel; the rate of sediment
transport through the channel and the rate of deposition on the floodplain, banks,
bars, and bed; and regional aggradation or degradation due to subsidence or uplift.
• River morphology can also be affected by human interaction, which is a way the
river responds to a new factor in how the river can change its course.