Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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    Scales of Bank Roughness and Their Relationship to Bank Erosion Processes
    (2009) Hankin, Erik Ravnholt; Prestegaard, Karen L; Geology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Stream bank erosion rates and the stabilization of channel width are poorly understood processes. There have been two distinct approaches to the study and prediction of bank erosion rates in natural streams. In order to predict bank shear stresses, scientists either define a reach as being meandering or straight, even though most river channels are neither meandering nor straight but a combination of the two. This thesis aims to determine if river segments can be divided into straight reaches and curved reaches with different bank erosion prediction approaches applied to each as well as investigating the role of bank roughness element size and spacing in bank erosion. The results show that straight reaches are affected by upstream curvature and that large isolated bank protrusions that are widely spaced generate erosion-causing, stable, macroturbulent eddies. The thesis has implications for stream restoration practices regarding bank stability and erosion.