dc.contributor.author | Politti, Emilio | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2018-02-28T11:52:18Z | |
dc.date.available | 2018-02-28T11:52:18Z | |
dc.date.issued | 30/01/2018 | |
dc.date.submitted | 2018-02-28T10:50:52.054Z | |
dc.identifier.citation | Politti, E. 2018. Investigating and modelling the interaction among vegetation, hydrodynamics and morphology. Queen Mary University of London | en_US |
dc.identifier.uri | http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/33928 | |
dc.description | PhD | en_US |
dc.description.abstract | The dissertation presented in this manuscript contributes to river science by providing a detailed
overview on the state of the art on the interaction between riparian vegetation and
hydrogeomorphological processes, by devising a novel model encompassing most of such processes
and by proposing a field methodology aimed at providing means for improving the modelling of such
interactions. The state of the art is summarized in an extensive review describing riparian vegetation
and hydrogeomorphological processes mutual feedbacks. Such review did not simply seek to describe
these feedbacks but, compiling from a large array of results from field, laboratory and modelling studies,
provides a set of physical thresholds that trigger system changes. Therefore, processes are not only
described terms but also explained with a quantitative approach. Processes description provided the
conceptual foundation for the development of the novel simulation model while model parameterization
was based on the quantitative information collected in the review. Such novel model, encompasses the
main relationships entwining riparian woody vegetation and hydrogeomorphological processes and is
able of replicating long term riparian landscape dynamics considering disturbance events,
environmental stressor and riparian woody vegetation establishment from seeds and large wood. The
manuscript presents the model structure and its conceptual validation by means of hydrological
scenarios aimed at testing the coherence of the simulation results with expected system behaviour.
Examples of such coherences are vegetation growth rate in response to hydrological regime,
entrainment and establishment of large wood in an unconfined river system and vegetation effect on
erosion and deposition patterns.
Analysis of sedimentation patterns from the modelled results suggested that vegetation flow resistance
should be modelled with greater detail. These conclusions pointed the dissertation research towards
the testing of a novel class of vegetation flow resistance equations, proposed by different authors, able
of describing woody vegetation flow resistance on a physical basis. These equations have the
advantage of considering flow stage, plants foliation level and species-specific flexibility. However, the
use of such equations is limited by the difficulty of measuring the vegetation properties required as
equation-inputs. In order to test if these equations could effectively improve sediment dynamics
predictions, a field method was formulated and tested. The field method allows to sample vegetation
properties that can be used with these novel class of flow resistance equations. In the manuscript, such
method is applied and the resulting vegetation properties used in several modelling scenarios. Such
scenario proved that hydraulic variables modelled with these novel flow resistance approaches are
more realistic and thus that the model developed during the dissertation could benefit from inclusion of
such flow resistance equations in its source code. | en_US |
dc.description.sponsorship | Edmund Mach Foundation | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
dc.publisher | Queen Mary University of London | |
dc.subject | Law | en_US |
dc.subject | Intellectual property | en_US |
dc.subject | Collateral | en_US |
dc.subject | Financing | en_US |
dc.title | Investigating and modelling the interaction among vegetation, hydrodynamics and morphology | en_US |
dc.type | Thesis | en_US |
dc.rights.holder | The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author | |