Project Details
Projekt
Human impact on fluvial morphodynamics and contaminant dispersion in small river catchments (case study Wurm, Lower Rhine Embayment)
Subject Area
Hydrogeology, Hydrology, Limnology, Urban Water Management, Water Chemistry, Integrated Water Resources Management
Geotechnics, Hydraulic Engineering
Geotechnics, Hydraulic Engineering
Term
from 2015 to 2020
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 274891834
Modern river systems in Central Europe are humanized fluvial systems. The influence started with the beginning of agriculture and increased since the medieval time (forest clearing, mill ponds, sealing). In addition, with the industrialization the contamination of water and sediment increased. Furthermore, the regulation of rivers induced significant changes in fluvial morphodynamics. This project focuses on human impact in a small catchment. As a case study area we chose the Wurm River in the Lower Rhine Embayment with a catchment size of 345 km². Due to a long tradition in coal mining in parts of the river mining subsidence occurred. This is a result of collapsed mine galleries, which causes depressions at the surface and in the floodplain. In addition, industry and wastewater sewage polluted water and sediments. The sedimentation rates in time and their spatial distribution in the floodplain and in the depressions can be detected by using different methods (heavy metals, organic geochemistry, Caesium 137). Source-specific substances allow a historic and spatial classification as well as the determination of point sources, remobilization and downstream dilution effects. The effects of mining subsidence and transverse structures (e.g. weirs) on the fluvial morphodynamics can be shown by using physical and numerical models. The results of this interdisciplinary approach involving landscape reconstruction, geochemistry and fluvial modelling will show the effects of direct and indirect human influence on fluvial dynamics and spatial distribution and remobilization of contaminants in floodplains. The transfer from results of this project on other comparable fluvial systems show challenges for environmental and social problems.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
Co-Investigator
Professor Dr.-Ing. Holger Schüttrumpf
