Publications related to Sediment control

Characterization of Thruster-Induced Turbulence for Fine Sediment Suspension

Giovanni De Cesare, Azin Amini, Montana Marshall, Andre Luis Stakowian

Reservoir sedimentation is a key challenge for storage sustainability because it causes volume loss, affecting hydropower production capacity, dam safety, and flood management. A preliminary EPFL study proposed and studied an innovative device (called SEDM ...

2023

Enhancing Flood Resilience: Sediment Management in Le Bez Torrent

Giovanni De Cesare, Azin Amini, Romain Nathan Hippolyte Merlin Van Mol

In the canton of Bern, Switzerland, the “Le Bez” torrent is known for its flash floods, causing sediment and wood debris buildup in Villeret village settled on the alluvial fan. To mitigate this issue, a sediment/wood trap system is being implemented upstr ...

Swiss Academy of Sciences (SCNAT)2023

Experimental modeling of fine sediment routing: SEDMIX device with thrusters

Giovanni De Cesare, Azin Amini, Montana Marshall

Reservoir sedimentation is a key challenge for storage sustainability because it causes volume loss, affecting hydropower production capacity, dam safety, and flood management. A preliminary EPFL study proposed and studied an innovative device (called SEDM ...

CRC Press/Balkema2023

Reduction of riverbed clogging related to sediment flushing

Giovanni De Cesare, Romain Maxime Dubuis

The ecological effects of dams on sediment and river flow have been subject to an increasing attention, leading to the implementation of mitigation measures such as environmental flow release and sediment replenishment. However, fine sediment dynamics have ...

CRC Press/Balkema2023

Exploring the efficacy of reservoir fine sediment management measures through numerical simulations

Giovanni De Cesare, Azin Amini, Samuel Luke Vorlet, Montana Marshall

Reservoir sedimentation is one of the main challenges in the sustainable operation of large reservoirs because it causes volume loss, affecting hydropower production capacity, dam safety, and flood management. To ensure the sustainability of deep reservoir ...

CRC Press/Balkema2023

Hydromorphological assessment of sediment augmentation measures in gravel-bed rivers

Christian Mörtl

In the riverine environment, the riverscape, sediment and flow regime are essential drivers for natural habitat dynamics. Today, most water courses in Europe are regulated, and their natural dynamics are impaired. Flood releases coupled with the artificial ...

EPFL2023

Modeling of solids particle diversion to promote uniform growth of multiple hydraulic fractures

Guanyi Lu

Solid particulate additives are sometimes used to promote the uniform growth of multiple hydraulic fractures in horizontal oil and gas wells. The principle is that solid particulates block, accumulate, and form larger porous plugging zones preferentially a ...

ELSEVIER2023

p Spatio-temporal deposition profile of an experimentally produced turbidity current with a continuous suspension supply

Giovanni De Cesare, Shun Nomura

A turbidity current is a turbulent, particle-laden gravity current that is driven by density differences resulting from the presence of suspended sediment particles. The current travels downslope, bearing a large amount of sediment over a great distance, a ...

2022

Decadal shoreline erosion and recovery of beaches in modified and natural estuaries

Vincent Henri De Staercke

Sandy beaches in estuaries and bays (BEBs) are common landforms on the coasts of many major cities. They exist under a wide range of settings and their morphology is controlled by their distance from the estuary/bay entrance, exposure to different types of ...

ELSEVIER2021

Quasi-stationary flow structure in turbidity currents

Giovanni De Cesare, Shun Nomura

A turbidity current is a particle-laden current driven by density differences due to suspended sediment particles. Turbidity currents can transport large amounts of sediment down slopes over great distances, and play a significant role in fluvial, lake and ...

IRTCES2020

Assessing Subaquatic Mass Movement Hazards: an Integrated Observational and Hydrodynamic Modelling Approach

Alfred Johny Wüest, Damien Bouffard, Nathalie Dubois, Carl Love Mikael Råman Vinnå

High-resolution lake and reservoir bathymetric surveys can pinpoint locations that may experience underwater landslides (subaquatic sedimentary mass movements). These can pose a risk to underwater and shoreline infrastructure. This paper outlines an approa ...

2020

Stream Solutes and Particulates Export Regimes: A New Framework to Optimize Their Monitoring

Camille Roland Marie Minaudo

The quantification of solute and sediment export from drainage basins is challenging. A large proportion of annual or decadal loads of most constituents is exported during relatively short periods of time, a “hot moment,” which vary between constituents an ...

2020

Towards simple tools to assess functional effects of contaminants on natural microbial and invertebrate sediment communities

Benoît Jean Dominique Ferrari, Maria del Carmen Casado Martinez, Sophie Campiche

Surface sediments can accumulate contaminants that affect microorganisms and invertebrates and disturb benthic ecological functions. However, effects of contaminants on ecological functions supported by sediment communities are understudied. Here, we teste ...

SPRINGER HEIDELBERG2020

Adapting the dynamic LakeMab model to simulate seasonal variations of phosphorus concentration in reservoirs: a case study of Lake Bultiere (France)

Camille Roland Marie Minaudo, Qian Zhang

Controlling phosphorus is fundamental to limit the risk of eutrophication of continental aquatic ecosystems. Integrated modelling of its concentration in the aquatic continuum requires specific tools for water bodies. However, although simple static empiri ...

2020

Heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants contamination in river, estuary, and marine sediments from Atlantic Coast of Democratic Republic of the Congo

Florian Frédéric Vincent Breider, Dominique Grandjean

The pollution assessment and the evaluation of potential risks in the Atlantic Coastal Region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo are still very limited. Consequently, the present study investigates for the first time the concentrations of heavy metals ...

Springer2020

Hypolimnetic oxygen depletion rates in deep lakes: Effects of trophic state and organic matter accumulation

Alfred Johny Wüest, Robert Vincent Schwefel, Beat Mueller

This study investigated the consumption of oxygen (O-2) in 11 European lakes ranging from 48 m to 372 m deep. In lakes less than similar to 100 m deep, the main pathways for O-2 consumption were organic matter (OM) mineralization at the sediment surface an ...

American Society of Limnology and Oceanography2020

Bottom slope influence on flow and bedload transfer through contractions

Anton Schleiss, Mário Jorge Rodrigues Pereira Da Franca, Sebastian Schwindt

In-stream open check dams are essential for flood protection at mountain rivers that are characterized by steep slopes (>1%) and sediment-laden flood discharges. These structures comprise an opening acting as a lateral or vertical flow contraction to force ...

Taylor & Francis Ltd2019

Effect of Aging on the Stability of Microbially Reduced Uranium in Natural Sediment

Rizlan Bernier-Latmani, Barbora Bártová, Yuheng Wang, Luca Loreggian, Sophie Louise Bretagne, Agnès Novotny

Reductive immobilization of uranium has been explored as a remediation strategy for the U-contaminated subsurface. Via the in situ biostimulation of microbial processes, hexavalent U is reduced to less soluble tetravalent species, which are immobilized wit ...

2019

Hydraulic-morphological habitat assessment in rivers considering residual flow, sediment replenishment and artificial flood events

Severin Stähly

Dams store water and trap sediment in their reservoirs. Downstream river segments, hence, are affected by a limited sediment dynamics. This becomes obvious by river bed incision, limited geomorphological variability and depletion of hydraulic habitats for ...

EPFL2019

Multiscale Modeling and Simulation of Erosive Wear in Pelton Turbines

Sebastián Camilo Leguizamón Sarmiento

Hydropower has been identified as a key technology to mitigate climate change due to its very low lifecycle greenhouse gas emission intensity and its capacity to integrate intermittent renewable energy sources such as wind and solar into the electrical gri ...

EPFL2019