ROLE OF CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY

IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF HYDROPOWER PROJECTS

Dr. Z Ahmad
Prof. of Civil Engineering
IIT Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India
1
 CHANNEL PROCESSES

Morphogenetic processes being carried by

flowing water in a channel. Main processes are

Erosion,
Transportation and
Sedimentation

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 2
 EROSION
A hydraulic action in which energy of flowing water scours the channel
bed and banks that makes channel deeper and broader.

Bed Erosion
Banks Erosion

TRANSPORTATION
Streams use power of flowing water to carry the sediment in various forms
like rolling, sliding, saltation, suspension etc.

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 3
 Modes Of Sediment Movement

0 > c
Rolling Sliding
Contact load

Bed load

Hopping or Bouncing
Saltation load

In suspension

Suspended load
 SEDIMENTATION
Sedimentation occurs once the flowing water cease to carry the sediment due

to its relatively low velocity and low stream power.

Channel Sedimentation

Reservoir Sedimentation

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 5
 Heavy Deposition in Asiganga at Gangori, Uttarkashi

6/30/2015 DEPT OF CIVIL ENG., IIT ROORKEE 6

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 6
Reservoir Sedimentation
Construction of dam across river causes sediment deposition
upstream.
It reduces storage capacity and poses risks for blockage of
intake structure.
 WORLDWIDE STORAGE, POWER AND SEDIMENTATION

Ref. Palmieri et al. 2003

6/30/2015 DEPT OF CIVIL ENG., IIT ROORKEE 8

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 8
 ISSUES OF CONTROL OF SEDIMENT
IN HYDROPOWER PROJECTS

Sediment conservative practices in watershed

Stabilization of Channels

6/30/2015 DEPT OF CIVIL ENG., IIT ROORKEE 9

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 9
 CASE STUDIES
Erosion, Deposition & Stabilization of the
channels
Morphological Changes of channels
Role of Hydraulic Structures in morphological
changes

6/30/2015 DEPT OF CIVIL ENG., IIT ROORKEE 10

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 10
 BANK EROSION AND ITS PROTECTION
AT ITBP , MATLI, UTTARKASHI

ITBP Campus

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 11
 Due to heavy flood, the right bank
of the Bhagirathi river upstream of
ITBP campus was eroded
severely leaving some of the
official buildings of ITBP campus
and also civilian houses in
hanging position.
Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 12
 HYDRODYNAMIC MODELLING BY HEC RAS

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 13
 Water surface profile computation Plan: Plan 01

20.*
40.*
60.*
150.* 120.* 90.*
180
210.*
290.* 250
310
330.*
350
370
380.*
390.*
400
430
440.*
450.*
470.*
490
520
550.*
580
600.*
620.*
650.*
700.*
730
760.*
790.*
820.*
850.*
880.*
910.*
950.*
1000.*
1040.*
1070.*
1100.*
1130
1150.*
1170.*
1190.*
1210.*
1230

3-D Water surface profile

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 14
 PLAN LAYOUT OF PROPOSED PROTECTION WORKS

Based on mathematical modeling, bank protection works in form of toe wall

followed by gabion boxes and stone masonry wall & spurs were suggested.

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 15
 PROPOSED MEASURES

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 16
VIEWS OF
EXECUTED
WORK AT ITBP,
MATLI
VIEWS OF
EXECUTED
WORK AT ITBP
MATLI
 DEGRADATION OF JAKHAN RIVER D/S OF BRIDGE
ON HARIDWAR - DEHRADUN SECTION OF NH - 72

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 19
 Preludes
A box type bridge exists at Chainage 185+812 on Haridwar-Dehradun
Section of NH-72 across Jakhan River. It consists of 29 boxes of size 3 m
3m and total length of bridge is 100 m.

The Jakhan River is a gravel stream with the bed material having an
average size of the order of 20 mm and receives flashy floods.

A severe degradation of river bed occurred downstream of the bridge.

The bed level of the river has gone down to about 8 m below the floor
level of the bridge, which has resulted in the bridge being in a dangerous
condition.

A new bridge, also of box type, is under construction upstream of the

existing bridge across the Jakhan river under the widening scheme of NH-
72 from Haridwar to Dehradun.

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 20
 Degraded downstream River bed by 8 m

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 21
 Measures
Construction of a stepped spillway
downstream of the existing bridge
followed by an impact type stilling basin.

Removal of encroachment along the

right bank from upstream to downstream
of the bridge.

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 22
Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 23
 Constructed Stepped spillways
Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 24
 BANK EROSION OF ALAKNANADA RIVER
AT CHOURAS CAMPUS OF HNBGU, SRINAGAR

Eroded portion of
HNBGU Campus Alaknanda River
 Eroded portion of
HNBGU Campus

HNBG University at Chauras is located on the right bank of the Alaknanda River at Srinagar,
Garwal. A portion of this right bank of the River comprising an large area of HNBG
University was eroded severely by the flood water in 2013.
 6/30/2015 DEPT OF CIVIL ENG., IIT ROORKEE 27
Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 27
 Eroded
area of
HNBG
University

TOPOSHEET OF
THE ERODED
AREA
 Morphological Changes

6/30/2015 DEPT OF CIVIL ENG., IIT ROORKEE 29

25/9/2010
 Morphological Changes

6/30/2015 DEPT OF CIVIL ENG., IIT ROORKEE 30

24/4/2014
 HYDRODYNAMIC
Ri v e
r
n da
A l ak
na
2400 2500 MODELING
2300
2050 2100 2200

1900
1800
1700
1600
1500
1450
1350 Srinagar
1250
1200
1150
1100

1000
950
Alaknanda River Plan: Plan 01
850 Alaknanda River Srinag ar
600
750 Legend

700 WS PF 2

WS PF 1
650 590 Ground

600 LOB
550 ROB
500
450
580
400

300
570
Elevation (m)

560

550

Modeled reach of the 540

Alaknanada River at 530

HNBGU, Srinagar
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000

Main Channel Distance (m)

Comparison of water surface profile with and

without restored right bank
6/30/2015 DEPT OF CIVIL ENG., IIT ROORKEE 31
Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 31
 Section of the proposed flood protection work
Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 32
Details of the proposed Gabion wall for flood
protection work
Under-construction flood protection wall
 Partially Constructed Wall

Photograph taken from

right bank d/s of the wall

Photograph taken
from Chouras area
 MATHEMATICAL MODELLING OF TILOTH BRIDGE
AT UTTARKASHI

6/30/2015 DEPT OF CIVIL ENG., IIT ROORKEE 36

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 36
 WASHED OUT APPROACH ROAD TO TILOTH BRIDGE

6/30/2015 DEPT OF CIVIL ENG., IIT ROORKEE 37

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 37
 A single span truss bridge (named as Tiloth) of length 60 m is located
across Bhagirathi river at Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand. Severe cloud bursts
occurred in the upper catchment of the Bhagirathi River in August 2012
and June 2013 resulting in heavy flood and devastation in Uttarkashi. Due
to this heavy flood, a number of bridges across the Bhagirithi River were
washed out including the cable suspension bridge at Uttarkashi. The flood
water washed out the right approach road to the Tiloth bridge leaving the
bridge in the danger condition.

The stable width of the river near the bridge is of the order of 100 m. Such
40% contraction in the width of the river shall results in higher
concentration of flow in the vicinity of the bridge putting the bridge on risk
due to erosion

There are two possible measures that can safeguard the Tiloth bridge from
the future flood in the Bhagirathi River.

Alternative-1: Adequate protection works to banks of the river, abutments,

and approach road to the existing bridge without enhancing length of the
bridge.

6/30/2015 DEPT OF CIVIL ENG., IIT ROORKEE 38

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 38
 Alternative-2: Extension of bridge in length towards right side by 30 m in
form of a single span truss bridge similar to existing one or in form of
multi cell.

Hydrodynamic model study reveals that the existing bridge shall cause
an afflux of 1.98 m under the passage of discharge 1411.57 m3/s. Such
high afflux shall severely inundate the area upstream of the bridge.
However, with enhanced bridge the afflux is merely 0.58m, i.e, there is
70% reduction in the afflux.
MODELLING OF TILOTH BRIDGE
 MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY OF RIVER
MANDAKINI

Objectives
Estimation of lateral shifting of the banks of the river with respect to
base year & appropriate graphical plotting of these shifting.

Estimation of eroded and deposited area along the length of the

river w.r.t. base year from Rudraprayag to Kedarnath using
appropriate GIS tool.

Identification of critical and vulnerable reaches- locations where

shifting is maximum.

41
Study Area
The reach of Mandakini River from Kedarnath to Rudraprayag has been
considered for the assessment of geomorphological change.

The study area lies in between 30o 44 4.81 N to 30o 17 3.89 N latitudes
and 79o 40 82 E to 78o 58 52.11 E longitudes from Kedarnath to
Rudraprayag in the Mandakini catchment of Rudraprayag district situated
at Uttarakhand state

42
Location Map of
Study Area

43
Data Used
For the present study Survey of India Topo sheets has been used, viz. 53 J/14,
53J/15, 53n/2 and 53N/3.

Data sets SOURCE Year Resolution

Resourcesat -1 : LISS III http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/ 2011 23.5 m

Resourcesat -2 : LISS IV http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/ 2011,2013 5.8 m

Cartosat-1 DEM http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/ 2008-2012 10 m

Landsat ETM+ http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/ 2014 30 m

IKONOS data Google Earth 2014,2010 4m

44
Cartosat-1 DEM, 2008-2012

45
Resourcesat -2: LISS IV, 20 Sep 2013.

Resourcesat -1: LISS III 18 Nov2011

46
 Landsat ETM, Yr. 2013

Resourcesat -1: LISS III Yr. 2011 47

 48
2011 kedarnath 2013 kedarnath
 Aerial photograph of Kedarnath (2015)

6/30/2015 DEPT OF CIVIL ENG., IIT ROORKEE 49

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 49
Before
1. Water comes from glacier in a
single stream
2. Large amount of debris lies on the
path
3. Water moves down in two stream
4. Water moves along in narrow
channel
5. Kedarnath settlement.
After
1. The channel of water has now become
broader
2. Debris in this path has disappeared,
suggesting it has been carried down by
the water
3. A new third stream of water has been
formed
4. Large amount of water has moved into
the area from all directions
5. Devastated Kedarnath settlement.
50
2011 Gaurikund

2013 Gaurikund 51
2011 Sonprayag

2013 Sonprayag
52
 Analysis
Total area of Mandakini river basin is 1024.57 sq. km and the
drainage pattern of river basin is dendritic

Elongation ratio value in study area is 0.78. It indicate that basin

are generally associated with strong relief and steep ground slope

The Rb value range from 4 to 5 indicating basin is lack of

structural controlled.

Both drainage density and Stream frequency measure the texture

of drainage set.

Circulatory ratio value 0.54 indicate that basin is elongated in

shape
53
 Average top width of the river is computed within a reach of 5 km.
It is observed that as we go upstream, width of the river goes on decreasing.

120

100

80
width(m)-->

60

40

20

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Rudraprayag Kedarnath
chainage(km)-->

Spatial variation of the bed width of the river

54
 120 Graphical
representation
100
between Slope and
width
WIDTH B (M)-->

80

60
y = 5.3286x-0.587
R = 0.8231
40

20

0
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14
SLOPE S -->

55
Delineated 2011 Mandakini River

Kedarnath

Sonprayag

Rudraprayag

56
Delineated 2013 Mandakini River

Kedarnath

Sonprayag

Rudraprayag

57
Overlap of river 2011 and 2013

Kedarnath

Sonprayag

Rudraprayag

58
 Kedarnath

Sonprayag

Rudraprayag

Lateral shifting of left and right bank. 59

 Kedarnath

Sonprayag

Rudraprayag

Erosion and deposition of Mandakini River

60
Erosion of left bank at Telwada

61
Erosion of bank at Somadi

62
 Erosion and Deposition within right bank It is observed that there
700000.00
is hardly any deposition
600000.00
while bank erosion is
500000.00
Area(m2) -->

400000.00
prominent over whole
300000.00 right bank
200000.00
100000.00 Kedarnath reach exhibits
0.00 huge erosion in both the
0
Rudraprayag
2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Kedarnath
16 banks.
Reach -->

Erosion and Deposition within left bank

500000.00
Near downstream of the river 400000.00
300000.00
that is Rudraprayag and 200000.00
Area (m2 ) -->

100000.00
surrounding area, there is 0.00
-100000.00 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
great amount of sediment -200000.00
-300000.00
deposited
-400000.00
-500000.00
Rudraprayag Reach Kedarnath
63
 TOTAL ERODED AREA
Right bank: 4.63 km2
Left bank: 1.10 km2
New channel: 0.95 km2
Total: 5.75 km2

TOTAL DEPOSITED AREA

Right bank: 0.03 km2
Left bank: 2.11 km2
Total: 2.14 km2

64
Conclusions
Morphology of Mandakini River has changed significantly.

After the computation total eroded area is 5.75 km2, which shows that
the rate of erosion is prominent in the entire Mandakini River
especially on the right bank.

There is sediment settlement near rudraprayag and its vicinity after the
flood.

At Kedarnath, both left as well as right banks of Mandakini River has

broadened its path and there are formations of new channels.

Kedarnath valley (3546 m asl) and settlements which are sited on the
banks of river Mandakini from Kedarnath to Sonprayag were
damaged because of flood and some towns were completely washed
away which includes Gaurikund (1990 m asl) and Rambara (2740 m
asl).
65
 REGIME EQUATIONS FOR ALLUVIAL RIVERS

Kennedys Theory
Critical Velocity

Vo = 0.55 h0.64 (for sandy soil)

General equation of Kennedy

V = 0.55 m h0.64

m = critical velocity ratio

Coarse sand m = 1.1 1.2

Fine sand m = 0.8 0.9
 Laceys Regime Equations

Fundamental equations

2
V fR
5
V 10.8R 2 / 3 S 1 / 3
Af 2 140V 5
R Hydraulic mean depth (hydraulic radius)
Derived equations

P 4.75 Q
1/ 6 Silt factor f 1.76 d
Qf 2
V d median size of sediment (mm)
140
f 5/ 3
S
3340Q 1 / 6
1/ 3 1/ 3
Q q2

Scour depth R * 0.473 ; R * 1.35
f f
 REGIME EQUATIONS FOR GRAVEL-BED RIVERS
Numerous efforts have been made toward the development of regime
equations for gravel-bed rivers ((Leopold and Maddock, 1953; Charlton et
al., 1978; Bray, 1982; Andrews, 1984; Hey and Thorne, 1986; Parker,
1978, 1979; Chang, 1980; Yang et al., 1981; Vigilar and Diplas, 1997;
Huang et al., 2002).

For gravel rivers, empirical regime equations for average channel width
(W), average channel depth (D), and average slope (S) can be expressed
in the form

Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL RIVER

PROCESSES
TRAINING
ANDWORKS
RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 68
 Concluding Remarks
Channel processes and changes in river
morphology pose sedimentation problem in
the hydropower projects.

The river channel shall be stabilized through

river training works to minimize the
aggradation and degradation in the streams.

Sediment ingestion in the hydropower

projects can be addressed through
watershed treatment and channel
stabilization
Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL PROCESSES AND RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 69
 Thanks
Z Ahmad, Dept. of Civil Eng., IIT Roorkee CHANNEL RIVER
PROCESSES
TRAINING
ANDWORKS
RIVER MORPHOLOGY.. 70