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A potential control of downstream channel width variations on the structure and planform of pool–riffle sequence local bed topography is a key to the dynamics of gravel bed rivers. How established pool–riffle sequences respond to time-varying changes in channel width at specific locations, however, is largely unexplored and challenging to address with field-based study. Here, we report results of a flume experiment aimed at building understanding of how statistically steady pool–riffle sequence profiles adjust to spatially prescribed channel width changes. We find that local bed slopes near steady-state conditions inversely correlate with local downstream width gradients when the upstream sediment supply approximates the estimated transport capacity. This result constrains conditions prior to and following the imposed local width changes. Furthermore, this relationship between local channel bed slope and downstream width gradient is consistent with expectations from scaling theory and a broad set of field-based, numerical, and experimental studies (n=88). However, upstream disruptions to coarse sediment supply through actions such as dam removal can result in a transient flipping of the expected inverse correlation between bed slope and width gradient, collectively highlighting that understanding local conditions is critical before typically implemented spatial averaging schemes can be reliably applied.

Study region: Francolí River (Catalonia, Iberian Peninsula). Study focus: The aim is the reconstruction of the October 2019 flash flood, that was documented through extensive field work: rainfall (300 mm in just a few hours), flood marks, times of flood passage and witnesses' snapshots and reports, channel changes, log drift (20,000 trees) and woody debris at bridges, as well as large damage and six fatalities. The methods are: hydrological model built for the rainfall-runoff in the basin and the flood routing in the river, use of hydraulic principles such as flow at waterfalls, flow against obstacles (trees), etc. and finally 1D/2D free surface numerical models. New hydrological insights: The uppermost 100 km2 produced discharges of 700 m3/s (up to 50 m3/s/km2, locally). Three bridges failed, but their cascading failure (when one failure triggers the next one downstream) was not proved. The main channel widened more than 10 times, dragging away soil and vegetation like a bulldozer. The resulting large wood debris that clogged two bridges worsened the inundation. An anomalous flow downstream, probably a surge of around 1090 m3/s, due to the failure of a woody jam at a narrow bridge, took two lives. Water Authority is now warning flood planners that vegetated, torrential basins may cause catastrophic floods in the valley towns, if their narrow bridges are sensitive to woody debris.

With the increasing attention on environmental flow management for the maintenance of habitat diversity and ecosystem health of mountain gravel-bed rivers, much interest has been paid to how inter-flood low flow can affect gravel-bed river morphodynamics during subsequent flood events. Previous research has found that antecedent conditioning flow can lead to an increase in critical shear stress and a reduction in sediment transport rate during a subsequent flood. However, how long this effect can last during the flood event has not been fully discussed. In this paper, a series of flume experiments with various durations of conditioning flow are presented to study this problem. Results show that channel morphology adjusts significantly within the first 15 min of the conditioning flow but becomes rather stable during the remainder of the conditioning flow. The implementation of conditioning flow can indeed lead to a reduction of sediment transport rate during the subsequent hydrograph, but such an effect is limited to within a relatively short time at the beginning of the hydrograph. This indicates that bed reorganization during the conditioning phase, which induces the stress history effect, is likely to be erased with increasing intensity of flow and sediment transport during the subsequent flood event.

The human pressure upon an alluvial river in the Mediterranean region has changed its riverine and deltaic landscapes. The river has been channelized in the last 70 years while the delta has been retreating for more than a century (a set of data unknown, so far). The paper concentrates on the fluvial component, trying to connect it to the delta evolution. Is the channelization responsible for the delta retreat? We develop a method to compute the actual bed load transport with real information of the past river morphology. The paper compares the computation with very limited measurements, among which are bulk volumes of trapped material at a modern, deep river mouth. The decrease in sediment availability in the last 30 km of the channelized river is deemed responsible for the decrease in the sediment yield to the delta. Moreover, power development and flood frequency should be responsible for a baseline delta retreat during the 20th century. The sediment trapping efficiency of dams is less important than the flow regulation by dams, in the annual sediment yield. Therefore, it is more effective to dismantle channelization than to pass sediment at dams, to provide sand to the beaches.

A one-dimensional model that is able to store the stratigraphy emplaced by a prograding delta is validated against experimental results. The laboratory experiment describes the migration of a Gilbert delta on a sloping basement into standing water, i.e., a condition in which the stratigraphy emplaced by the delta front is entirely stored in the deposit. The migration of the delta front and the deposition on the delta top are modeled with total and grain-size-based mass conservation models. The vertical sorting on the delta front is modeled with a lee-face-sorting model as a function of the grain size distribution of the sediment deposited at the brinkpoint, i.e., at the downstream end of the delta top. Notwithstanding the errors associated with the grain-size-specific bedload transport formulation, the comparison between numerical and experimental results shows that the model is able to reasonably describe the progradation of the delta front, the frictional resistances on the delta top, and the overall grain size distribution of the delta top and delta front deposits. Further validation of the model in the case of variable base level is currently in progress to allow for future studies, at field and laboratory scale, on how the delta stratigraphy is affected by different changes of relative base level.

A methodology for dam removal monitoring and the results of two case studies is presented: Mendaraz dam (Urumea River) and Inturia dam (Leitzaran River), both located in Gipuzkoa. This monitoring is conducted by river survey cross-sections, measurements of processes and granulometrical analysis. Fast sediment erosion and sedimentation together with geomorphological adjustments were detected after dam removal. In Mendaraz an extraordinary flood favored these processes. The recovery of fluvial dynamics shows benefits not only from the ecological point of view but also for the restoration of natural river dynamics. Geomorphological monitoring is a key tool to quantify and assess river evolution and dynamics after dam removal.