С-5-FG-MSU-1
Passport of joint Russian-U.S. project
1. Title
Water flow and sedimentation modeling under environmental change and human impact (case study
of Russia and US rivers)
2. Annotation
Understanding and mathematical formulation of the process of water flow and sediment load
is of significant importance for the different water management problems solution. Capabilities of
water flow and sediment modeling on exact river sites challenge to variety of hydrological,
geomorphological and ecological processes. Traditional methods of hydrological regime
investigations provide insufficient accuracy of information for distinct river reaches. Mathematical
models application for water flow and sediment load processes investigations enables to enhance
understanding of water regime specifics on different parts of river network. Simulation provides a
possibility to estimate characteristics of hazardous hydrological processes: flood wave moving,
depth and boundary of inundation of the territory, changes in bottom and water level due to
different types of human activities in river channels etc. Herewith there is an opportunity to
estimate both real situations and hypothetic possibilities, such as passing of discharges of low
frequency, changes of channel morphometry, water flow regulation, and contaminated waters
discharge. Therefore the main objective of the project is to develop empirical and numerical models
for the purpose of water flow, sediment load and morphodynamic processes simulating for unstable
channels. Nowadays there is a lag in Russian hydrology compared with world progress in spite of
the fact that a huge amount of data has been collected. World experience of flow and sediment 2D
and 3D modeling include only few examples. The most progress in this field was achieved in
National Center for Computational Hydroscience and Engineering, University of Mississippi,
participant of the project from the side of United States. In the framework of the project it is
planned to realize following objectives: forecast of channel deformations and revelation of the areas
of sediment accumulation and channel scour, forecast of channel position in different landscapes,
conditions of flooding of the adjacent territories. Different factors of sediment load formation are
planned to be considered in the water flow and sediment load modeling and their predictions. Also
the comparison of actual and simulated data of sediment load will be conducted. Models RIVER
(Russian academy of sciences), GSTARS (university of Colorado, USA), CCHE - CCHE1D,
CCHE2D and CCHE3D (University of Mississippi), MIKE11 (Danish Hydrological Institute) are
planned to be used.
3. Description of the expected project results
Project is devoted to contemporary technologies of flow and sediment movement description in
hydrological survey. The hydrodynamical modeling capabilities will be analyzed in terms of
adaption and recent computational techniques analyses. The full contemporary suit of 2D models
will be gathered and adopted. Techniques of the suitable surrogate measures of suspended sediment
concentration and bed load will be adapted in order to increase procedures of measurements and
result obtaining. The regional geographical areas in USA and Russia to classify technologies of fast
measurement using scatter intensity (turbidity, acoustic backscattering, remote sensing imagery)
will be found. On-situ surveys will be done to compare modeling results on the given river sites for
the scenario of environmental changes and human impact on river basins.
Finally the project is aimed on improvement of recent numerical models of water and sediment
flow, morphodynamics of unstable channels and its application for the case sites of US anв Russian
rivers (Arctic basin). The important role of the project is devoted to new techniques regional
assessments of flow and sediment load based on remote sensing imagery. Data on modeling
capabilities of sediment and flow modeling for rivers from various environments will be compared.
The system of river management will be adopted.
4. Novelty, description of competitive advantages of the developed technology
Joint Russian-U.S. project aims to develop suit of hydrological models and to verify them on
the key rivers, situated in different landscapes. All methods of hydrological observations and
modelling, from data acquisition, preparing of initial information and choice of model up to
conducting of numerical modeling and imitative calculations for different scenarios, will be formed
in one cycle. Blocks of hydrodynamical models will be combined with the models of turbidity
estimations from satellite images. That will allow to enhance the processes of actual data
acquisition and its modeling application. Combination of actual water flow and sediment load
assessments and results of laboratory experiments and mathematical modelling will permit to
estimate the quality of different systems of water and channel management for large variety of
landscapes of the world. The final result of the project will be actual estimation of water and
sediment runoff of key Russian and US rivers.
5. Expected effect of the project results
Maximal effects of the project are expected to be obtained in water management while
solving problems concerning to safety interaction between human industry and environment.
Particularly following problems will be solved using the expected models: hydrological safety of
domesticated river valleys during floods; hydrological safety of the channels under human
activities; safety of pipeline functioning in the places of river crossing; safety of reservoir areas of
the rivers.
6. Proposed participants of the project consortium (research, education, commercial)
American participant: National Center for Computational Hydroscience and Engineering,
University of Mississippi, USA. Prof. Sam Wang, tel.: 6629157796, NCCHE the University of
Mississippi 327 Old Chem. University, MS 38677.
Russian participant: Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University, prof. N.I.
Alekseevskiy, coordinator, ass. prof., deputy dean for international relations, S.R. Chalov, +7(495)
9391552; 119991, Moscow, Russia, Leninskie gory, GSP-1.
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7. Preliminary plan of project preparation and performance, main project milestones
Preliminary plan of project for 2 first years.
Designation
Dates
Combined field and laboratory investigations, data acquisition. Visit of
10.04.11 –
American participants to Russia, study of different technologies of sediment
10.10.11
load estimation.
Generalization, analyses of the results of field and laboratory research. Visit of 10.10.11 –
Russian scientists to USA. Mathematical modelling of sediment transport with 10.04.12
the help of models RIVER, GSTARS, CCHE2D, Mike 11.
Analyzing of the results of mathematical and physical modelling. Modification 10.04.12 –
of the models for concrete studied river, consideration of human impact. Visit
10.10.12
of American participants to Russia
Visit of Russian scientists to USA. Generalization of whole information.
Working out the methods of water and sediment discharge estimation with the
help of satellite images, remote sensing. Generalization of world experience in
the field of sediment load research
10.10.12 –
10.04.13