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Project properties |
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| Title | Sediment Yield Modelling of the Meuse River |
| Group | Soil Physics and Land Management group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 24-39 |
| Supervisor(s) | Hermjan Barneveld+ expert Deltares |
| Examiner(s) | Jantiene Baartman |
| Contact info | jantiene.baartman@wur.nl |
| Begin date | 2021/05/25 |
| End date | |
| Description | The sediment balance for the Meuse River is not well known. The annual loads of gravel, sand and silt in the river are important to explain morphological processes in the river and response to measures. Assessment and analysis of the sediment yield of the Meuse catchment is an important step towards an improved sediment balance.
WFLOW-SBM (picture left) is a distributed hydrology model developed by Deltares (open source python). A new development is WFLOW-SEDIMENT (picture right), which calculates soil loss and sediment transport in the river system using the results of the WFLOW-SBM. For the Meuse River a WFLOW-SBM model has been built recently and successfully calibrated. A WFLOW-SEDIMENT model is not yet available. Research Objective/Question Construction of a WFLOW-SEDIMENT model for the Meuse River based on the existing WFLOW-SBM model, calibration of the model and apply it in a sensitivity and uncertainty analysis. The results will provide improved knowledge on the sediment balance in the Meuse River, including the most important (model) parameters and uncertainty interval. The study will further give recommendations for use of and new developments in WFLOW-SEDIMENT. What is expected from the student (type of research) •Construction of the WFLOW-SEDIMENT model using open source model building scripts and based on the existing WFLOW-SBM model and open source data on vegetation and soil texture. •Collection and analysis of calibration data: several papers available on tributaries Ardennes + contacts Uni Liege. •Calibration of the model for one or two sub-catchments + application on other sub-catchments. •Sensitivity analysis: selection of parameters and selection of most relevant parameters for uncertainty analysis. •Uncertainty analysis for complete Meuse River with focus on Dutch part of the Meuse River. |
| Used skills | |
| Requirements | basic programming (Python preferably) + basic French language, affinity with sediment erosion and sediment transport processes. |