Environmental Transport and Fate

Chapter 4
–
Rivers & Streams
Introduction – Dynamics – Dispersion

Benoit Cushman-Roisin
Thayer School of Engineering
Dartmouth College

Rivers and streams are but a link in the global cycle of water,
called the hydrological cycle.

Approximately half of the solar energy striking the earth's surface is estimated to be
consumed by the latent heat necessary to convert liquid water into water vapor, either
through evaporation (mostly over the oceans) or through transpiration (mostly of plant
leaves). The combination of these two processes, together called evapotranspiration,
consumes an enormous amount of energy, about 4000 times the present rate of
human energy consumption,
consumption and corresponds to the annual removal of a one-meter
thick layer of water around the entire globe.

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 The hydrological cycle on earth. Flows are expressed in 103 km3/year
(from Masters, 1997, based on earlier estimates)
Note how numbers vary from the preceding slide.

Of all the links in the hydrological cycle, rivers have traditionally been the greatest
environmental victims, for the simple reason that their network extends over large
continental areas and, consequently, there is almost always a river or stream in the
proximity of human activities.

Furthermore, with the long-held belief that rivers were self-cleaning (and a hefty dose of
“out of sight -- out of mind” and “the solution to pollution is dilution”!), people felt relatively
free to dump their wastes into the nearest body of moving water. This went on for centuries,
until the industrial revolution when the population in cities grew rapidly and industrial wastes
began to compound the effects of domestic and agricultural wastes.

Eventually, problems of water-related diseases (such as cholera), dubious colors, foul odors
and fish kills became too obvious to be ignored.

Nowadays, the substances that harm rivers and streams are well known; the chief culprits
are:
► pathogens (disease-causing
(disease ca sing viruses
ir ses and bacteria)
bacteria),
► any organic substance the decay of which is accompanied
by a depletion of dissolved oxygen (such as untreated sewage),
► nutrients (such as phosphorus and nitrogen, which cause unwanted algal growth),
► heavy metals,
► pesticides, and
► volatile organic compounds [VOCs, such as trichloroethylene (TCE)].

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Rivers & Streams Morphology Narrow and shallow
Physics Downslope, unidirectional gravity flow
Seasonal variations in flow rate
Much turbulence
Pollution point sources Municipal & industrial discharge pipes
Pollution distributed sources Agricultural runoff along banks
Sedimentation – resuspension along the way
N t
Nature off pollution
ll ti Heavy metals;
H t l N Nutrients
t i t (Ph
(Phosphorus)
h )
Oxygen-depleting substances (BOD)
Lakes & Reservoirs Morphology Wide, shallow or deep
Physics Wind-driven currents and waves
Seiches (external & internal)
Seasonal stratification and convection
Pollution point sources River inflow, discharge pipes
Pollution distributed sources Precipitation, agricultural run-off
Nature of pollution Nutrients (Phosphorus); Acidity
Estuaries & Coastal Ocean Morphology Widening and shallow
Physics Downslope gravity flow of river
Density-driven saline intrusion; Tides
Pollution sources River inflow, coastal plumes
Nature of pollution Heavy metals
Excessive nutrients (Nitrogen)

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Basic Hydraulics
River flow is driven by gravity: water goes downhill. So, there is a clear relationship
between water velocity and bottom slope. Because rivers have rough bottoms and
relatively fast currents, their flow is almost always turbulent, even though the casual
observer may not realize that it is so. Ground friction retards the flow near the bottom and
creates a velocity shear in the vertical, producing “tumbling” eddies as depicted below.

The eddy rotation is mostly about a horizontal axis transverse to the main direction of
the flow, with the largest vortices having therefore a length scale equal to the depth of
the water: dmax = H.

What is the value of the eddy orbital velocity u* ?

Newton’s second law:

mass x acceleration = force

u*
W L H   b W L

eddy turnaround time

H
   u*2   b
u*

b
Define the so-called friction velocity: u* 


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 Budget for a stretch dx of river

A = Area W = Width h = max depth

P = wetted Perimeter S = Slope = sin 

Balance of forces in the downstream direction

for a short stretch dx of channel

In the absence of acceleration, that is, for uniform downhill flow:

mass x gravity = frictional force

 Adx  gS   b P dx

Solve this equation for the bottom stress b :

A
 b   g S   g Rh S
P
 b   u*2 u*  g Rh S
A
in which Rh  is called the hydraulic radius.
P

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 Hydraulic radius

A
The hydraulic radius Rh 
P
is the ratio of channel cross-sectional area A to the wetted perimeter P.

For a rectangular channel: A = W H and P = H + W + H = W + 2H.

Thus,
WH
Rh  H
W  2H

Most often, the width of a river is much longer than its depth (W >> H), and we have

WH
Rh  H
W  2H
Rh  H holds for all channels that are much wider than they are deep.

Like for a bicycle wheel,

the forward velocity u is proportional to

the orbital velocity u* . Thus,

u  C u*

This formula is due to Antoine de Chézy (1718-1798), a French hydraulic engineer who
designed a canal uniting the Seine and Rhône Rivers, as well an early sewer system for
th city
the it off Paris.
P i

C is called the Chézy coefficient.

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 After Chézy came Robert Manning, a French-born Irish engineer
(1816-1897), who found that the Chézy coefficient is not constant
but depends weakly on the hydraulic radius. He proposed:

C  Rh1/ 6

which leads to the replacement of the Chézy formula by the more accurate
Manning formula:

1 2 / 3 1/ 2
u Rh S
n

Note that this formula is not dimensionally consistent. It works only for a particular
choice of units, namely:

Hydraulic radius Rh in meters

Slope S in meters of vertical drop per meter of river distance
→ mean flow velocity u in meters per second.

Channel type n
Cement smooth slabs 0.012
Sample values of the
finished 0.014
Manning roughness coefficient
unfinished 0.014
bottom sand ripples 0.018
very rough 0.020
Asphalt 0.016
Excavated channel clay loam 0 018
0.018
gravel 0.025
weeds 0.030
cobbles 0.030
stones 0.035
Natural channel cobblestone bed 0.030
irregular edges 0.035
For sample values of Manning’s
major rivers 0.035
roughness values, see:
rocky edges 0.040

http://wwwrcamnl.wr.usgs.gov/ sluggish, with pools 0.040

sws/fieldmethods/Indirects/ variable section 0.040
nvalues/index.htm irregular, with rocks 0.045
very irregular, with trees 0.060
Flood plains pasture, farmland 0.035
light brush 0.050
floodway channel 0.125
trees, obstructions 0.150

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 Determination of water speed and depth from discharge for a given channel

Given:

- Bed slope
p S and roughness
g n
- Channel geometry (width if rectangular
or cross-sectional area as function of water level)
- Discharge Q (in m3/s)

Question:

How does the stream partition its Q in terms of water speed u and water depth H?

Answer for a wide-shallow channel ((taking

g Rh = H)):

Q  u A  u WH 3/ 5
1  nQ 
1 1  Q  WH 5 / 3 S 1/ 2  H  
u  Rh2 / 3 S 1/ 2  H 2 / 3 S 1/ 2 n W S 
n n
2/5
1  nQ 
u   S
n W S 

The enigma of Roman water engineers

Roman engineers had no

conception of time at the scale of
the minute and second. So, they
had no quantitative concept of
water velocity and dealt only with
water depths.

So, how were they able to build

properly designed sewers and
aqueducts?

Segovia, Spain

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 Answer

The Romans were lucky because velocity is

intimately related to water depth, and water depth
could then be used as the only variable.

It also helped that water depth happens to be the

more sensitive function of discharge among the
two variables.

Because they are much longer than they are wide, and much wider than they
are deep, rivers and streams are very anisotropic.

Thus,

Longitudinal diffusion (in downstream, x-direction)

>>
Transverse diffusion (from bank to bank, in y-direction)
>>
Vertical diffusion (from surface to bottom, in z-direction)

Mathematically we expect:
Mathematically,

Dlongitudinal  Dtransverse  Dvertical

Dx  Dy  Dz

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Vertical Diffusion

Vertical mixing is accomplished by rolling eddies with horizontal transverse axes.

The maximum eddy diameter is naturally the water depth, H, while the typical orbital
velocity associated with these eddies is the friction velocity u*.
Empirical evidence provides:

Dvertical  Dz  0.067 u* H Recall: u*  gRh S  gHS

Distance for nearly complete mixing in the vertical

H2 H
Time for complete mixing in the vertical is t vertical  0.134  2.0
(assuming release at mid-depth) Dvertical u*

Replacing time by traveled distance at the average speed:

u
xvertical  u t vertical  2.0 H
u*

If release occurs at surface or along the bottom, multiply this value by 4.

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