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Abstract Bedrock river width is an essential geometric parameter relevant to understanding flood hazards and gauging station rating curves, and is critical to stream power incision models and many other landscape evolution models. Obtaining bedrock river width measurements, however, typically requires extensive field campaigns that take place in rugged and steep topography where river access is often physically challenging. Although prior work has turned to measuring channel width from satellite imagery, these data present a snapshot in time, are typically limited to rivers ≥ 10–30 m wide due to the image resolution, and are physically restricted to areas devoid of vegetation. For these reasons, we are generally data limited, and the factors impacting bedrock channel width remain poorly understood. Due to these limitations, researchers often turn to assumptions of width‐scaling relationships with drainage area or discharge to estimate bedrock channel width. Here we present a new method of obtaining bedrock channel width at a desired river discharge through the incorporation of a high‐resolution bare‐earth digital elevation model (DEM) using MATLAB Topotoolbox and the HEC‐RAS river analysis system. We validate this method by comparing modeled results to US Geological Survey (USGS) field measurements at existing gauging stations, as well as field channel measurements. We show that this method can capture general characteristics of discharge rating curves and predict field‐measured channel widths within uncertainty. As high‐resolution DEMs become more available across the United States through the USGS three‐dimensional elevation program (3DEP), the future utility of this method is notable. Through developing and validating a streamlined, open‐source, and freely available workflow of channel width extraction, we hope this method can be applied to future research to improve the quantity of channel width measurements and improve our understanding of bedrock channels.
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An expanded rating curve model to estimate river discharge during tidal influences across the progressive-mixed-standing wave systems
Empirically quantifying tidally-influenced river discharge is typically laborious, expensive, and subject to more uncertainty than estimation of upstream river discharge. The tidal stage-discharge relationship is not monotonic nor necessarily single-valued, so conventional stage-based river rating curves fail in the tidal zone. Herein, we propose an expanded rating curve method incorporating stage-rate-of-change to estimate river discharge under tidal influences across progressive, mixed, and standing waves. This simple and inexpensive method requires (1) stage from a pressure transducer, (2) flow direction from a tilt current meter, and (3) a series of ADP surveys at different flow rates for model calibration. The method was validated using excerpts from 12 tidal USGS gauging stations during baseflow conditions. USGS gauging stations model discharge using a different more complex and expensive method. Comparison of new and previous models resulted in good R2 correlations (min 0.62, mean 0.87 with S.D. 0.10, max 0.97). The method for modeling tidally-influenced discharge during baseflow conditions was applied de novo to eight intertidal stations in the Mission and Aransas Rivers, Texas, USA. In these same rivers, the model was further expanded to identify and estimate tidally-influenced stormflow discharges. The Mission and Aransas examples illustrated the potential scientific and management utility of the applied tidal rating curve method for isolating transient tidal influences and quantifying baseflow and storm discharges to sensitive coastal waters.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1417433
- PAR ID:
- 10545087
- Editor(s):
- Duan, Weili
- Publisher / Repository:
- PLOS ONE
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- PLOS ONE
- Volume:
- 14
- Issue:
- 12
- ISSN:
- 1932-6203
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- e0225758
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0225758
