Sharif Digital Repository

High bed-shear stress resulting from secondary flows and velocity increase at a channel junction cause local erosion and deposition in natural rivers and earth-lined channels. Herein, the scour patterns at the junction of two loose bed channels were studied under clear-water conditions. The main dimensionless variables are the angle between the two approach flow branches, the discharge and width ratios of the tributary to the downstream channel branches, and the ratio of the mean downstream velocity to the threshold velocity. The results indicate that the position of the maximum scour depth temporally moves to the outer wall and upstream to the main channel, as affected by the dimensionless... 

Observatory-scale data collection efforts allow unprecedented opportunities for integrative, multidisciplinary investigations in large, complex watersheds, which can affect management decisions and policy. Through the National Science Foundation-funded REACH (REsilience under Accelerated CHange) project, in collaboration with the Intensively Managed Landscapes-Critical Zone Observatory, we have collected a series of multidisciplinary data sets throughout the Minnesota River Basin in south-central Minnesota, USA, a 43,400-km2 tributary to the Upper Mississippi River. Postglacial incision within the Minnesota River valley created an erosional landscape highly responsive to hydrologic change,...