Degradation of a Foreland River After the Wenchuan Earthquake, China: A Combined Effect of Weirs, Sediment Supply, and Sediment Mining
Abstract Since the 2008 Wenchuan (Ms. 8.0) Earthquake, the foreland rivers of the Longmen Mountains have suffered from significant bed degradation, among which the Shi‐ting River has experienced the largest local degradation of more than 20 m in 7 years. Potential reasons of the dramatic degradation...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2023-10-01
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| Series: | Water Resources Research |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2023WR035345 |
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| author | Yongpeng Lin Chenge An Shan Zheng Ruihua Nie Gary Parker Marwan A. Hassan Matthew J. Czapiga Xudong Fu |
| author_facet | Yongpeng Lin Chenge An Shan Zheng Ruihua Nie Gary Parker Marwan A. Hassan Matthew J. Czapiga Xudong Fu |
| author_sort | Yongpeng Lin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Since the 2008 Wenchuan (Ms. 8.0) Earthquake, the foreland rivers of the Longmen Mountains have suffered from significant bed degradation, among which the Shi‐ting River has experienced the largest local degradation of more than 20 m in 7 years. Potential reasons of the dramatic degradation include: (a) sediment disconnectivity due to in‐channel weirs; (b) the mobilization effect on gravel of an increased sand supply as a result of earthquake‐induced landslides; and (c) sediment extraction due to intensive mining. In this paper, we study the complex interaction among the above‐mentioned factors in the Shi‐ting River, using a one‐dimensional river morphodynamic model. Simulation results show that in‐channel weirs can reduce bedload transport and lead to bed degradation that is proportional to weir height. When coupled with additional sand supply, the weirs preferentially trap gravel and deliver sand, augmenting the downstream mobility of gravel and thus the degradation. For the Shi‐ting River, the simulated bed degradation agrees well with the observation when an annual sediment mining of 16 million tons is implemented in the simulation, along with the effects of in‐channel weirs and sand supply. The contribution of sediment mining is one order of magnitude larger than the coupling effect of weirs and sand supply. Both the simulation and observation show that the largest bed degradation occurs downstream of the Renmin Weir, due to the large spatial interval between the Renmin Weir and the next grade control structure. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-cb8a9c0cd3b64b0eb14921aea14010ae |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0043-1397 1944-7973 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2023-10-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Water Resources Research |
| spelling | doaj-art-cb8a9c0cd3b64b0eb14921aea14010ae2025-08-20T03:24:07ZengWileyWater Resources Research0043-13971944-79732023-10-015910n/an/a10.1029/2023WR035345Degradation of a Foreland River After the Wenchuan Earthquake, China: A Combined Effect of Weirs, Sediment Supply, and Sediment MiningYongpeng Lin0Chenge An1Shan Zheng2Ruihua Nie3Gary Parker4Marwan A. Hassan5Matthew J. Czapiga6Xudong Fu7State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering Department of Hydraulic Engineering Tsinghua University Beijing ChinaState Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering Department of Hydraulic Engineering Tsinghua University Beijing ChinaState Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Science Wuhan University Wuhan ChinaState Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering College of Water Resource and Hydropower Sichuan University Chengdu ChinaDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering University of Illinois, Urbana‐Champaign Champaign IL USADepartment of Geography The University of British Columbia Vancouver BC CanadaDepartment of Civil Engineering University of South Carolina Columbia SC USAState Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering Department of Hydraulic Engineering Tsinghua University Beijing ChinaAbstract Since the 2008 Wenchuan (Ms. 8.0) Earthquake, the foreland rivers of the Longmen Mountains have suffered from significant bed degradation, among which the Shi‐ting River has experienced the largest local degradation of more than 20 m in 7 years. Potential reasons of the dramatic degradation include: (a) sediment disconnectivity due to in‐channel weirs; (b) the mobilization effect on gravel of an increased sand supply as a result of earthquake‐induced landslides; and (c) sediment extraction due to intensive mining. In this paper, we study the complex interaction among the above‐mentioned factors in the Shi‐ting River, using a one‐dimensional river morphodynamic model. Simulation results show that in‐channel weirs can reduce bedload transport and lead to bed degradation that is proportional to weir height. When coupled with additional sand supply, the weirs preferentially trap gravel and deliver sand, augmenting the downstream mobility of gravel and thus the degradation. For the Shi‐ting River, the simulated bed degradation agrees well with the observation when an annual sediment mining of 16 million tons is implemented in the simulation, along with the effects of in‐channel weirs and sand supply. The contribution of sediment mining is one order of magnitude larger than the coupling effect of weirs and sand supply. Both the simulation and observation show that the largest bed degradation occurs downstream of the Renmin Weir, due to the large spatial interval between the Renmin Weir and the next grade control structure.https://doi.org/10.1029/2023WR035345river degradationgrade control structuresgravel transport augmenting sandearthquakesediment miningforeland rivers |
| spellingShingle | Yongpeng Lin Chenge An Shan Zheng Ruihua Nie Gary Parker Marwan A. Hassan Matthew J. Czapiga Xudong Fu Degradation of a Foreland River After the Wenchuan Earthquake, China: A Combined Effect of Weirs, Sediment Supply, and Sediment Mining Water Resources Research river degradation grade control structures gravel transport augmenting sand earthquake sediment mining foreland rivers |
| title | Degradation of a Foreland River After the Wenchuan Earthquake, China: A Combined Effect of Weirs, Sediment Supply, and Sediment Mining |
| title_full | Degradation of a Foreland River After the Wenchuan Earthquake, China: A Combined Effect of Weirs, Sediment Supply, and Sediment Mining |
| title_fullStr | Degradation of a Foreland River After the Wenchuan Earthquake, China: A Combined Effect of Weirs, Sediment Supply, and Sediment Mining |
| title_full_unstemmed | Degradation of a Foreland River After the Wenchuan Earthquake, China: A Combined Effect of Weirs, Sediment Supply, and Sediment Mining |
| title_short | Degradation of a Foreland River After the Wenchuan Earthquake, China: A Combined Effect of Weirs, Sediment Supply, and Sediment Mining |
| title_sort | degradation of a foreland river after the wenchuan earthquake china a combined effect of weirs sediment supply and sediment mining |
| topic | river degradation grade control structures gravel transport augmenting sand earthquake sediment mining foreland rivers |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1029/2023WR035345 |
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