Publications related to Evolution of the hydromorphodynamics of mountain river confluences for varying discharge ratios and junction angles

Inversing the actuation cycle of dielectric elastomer actuators for a facial prosthesis

Paolo Germano, Yves Perriard, Yoan René Cyrille Civet, Alexis Boegli, Thomas Guillaume Martinez, Stefania Maria Aliki Konstantinidi, Quentin Philippe Mario De Menech

Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (DEAs) are a type of smart material described as compliant capacitors. They show impressive performances as soft actuators, such as a high strain and fast response. Nonetheless, replicating natural muscle function with DEAs h ...

Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)2024

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

Clogging of riverbed substrates by fine sediment

Romain Maxime Dubuis

Riverbeds represent the habitat of numerous aquatic species. Exchanges between the groundwater, the hyporheic zone and the surface flow are also essential for river ecosystems. Fine sediment transported by rivers deposits inside or on top of the bed and mo ...

EPFL2023

Ecosystem engineering by periphyton in Alpine proglacial streams

Matteo Roncoroni, Tom Ian Battin, Marc Aguet, Adrijan Selitaj, Davide Mancini

Stream periphytons are candidate ecosystem engineers in proglacial margins. Here, we quantify the extent to which they are engineers for the case of hillslope-fed tributaries in the terrace zones of proglacial margin alluvial plains. Candidate ecosystem en ...

WILEY2023

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

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

Continuous monitoring of morphological changes from sediment augmentation by field measurements and flume experiments

Giovanni De Cesare, Christian Mörtl

In this study, we present results from continuous field monitoring and a flume ex-periment of a sediment augmentation measure in a residual flow reach of the Swiss midlands. A straight morphological channel with fixed bed material was constructed to repres ...

2023

The clogging of riverbeds: A review of the physical processes

Giovanni De Cesare, Romain Maxime Dubuis

Fine sediment represents an important part of the solid flux of rivers. Due to the size of these particles, they are often transported as suspended load. They gradually fill the pores of the substrate forming the hyporheic zone or cover the substrate by se ...

2023

Influence of the shear stress on fine sediment exchanges with the substrate using UVP measurements

Giovanni De Cesare, Romain Maxime Dubuis

The dynamic of fine sediment in rivers is closely related to the interactions between fine particles, the riverbed and the flow conditions. The accumulation of fine sediment in the riverbed reduces vertical water exchanges and can have detrimental effects ...

2023

Ultrasonic sediment flux profiling with ACVP Technology: application to sediment-laden Boundary Layer flows

Giovanni De Cesare, David Hurther

Sediment transport in geophysical boundary layer flows has relevance to a broad spectrum of sciences ranging from the physical and chemical, to the biological, ecological and geological. Advances in sediment transport modelling and prediction strongly suff ...

2023

Experimental Study on Bedload Transport and Bedforms: Behaviour and Interplay in Steep Turbulent Streams

Ivan Pascal

In mountain regions, steep streams play an important role in water and sediment connectivity. In these highly dynamic systems, water flow features, sediment fluxes and stream morphologies are tightly interlinked over a broad range of temporal and spatial s ...

EPFL2022

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

Do Antidune Trains Undergo Morphological Changes When These Bedforms Migrate Upstream?

Christophe Ancey, Ivan Pascal

Upstream migrating antidunes develop in streams under supercritical flow conditions. These bedforms are often organised in trains (i.e. sequences of well-developed antidunes). In shallow flows over coarse sediments, the dynamics of a single antidune can be ...

Madrid2022

Benthic Biofilms in Glacier-Fed Streams from Scandinavia to the Himalayas Host Distinct Bacterial Communities Compared with the Streamwater

Leïla Ezzat, Vincent Henri De Staercke, Tom Ian Battin, Paraskevi Pramateftaki, Hannes Markus Peter, Emmy Marie Oppliger, Jade Brandani, Matteo Tolosano, Michail Styllas, Tyler Joe Kohler, Stylianos Fodelianakis, Massimo Bourquin, Martina Andrea Schön, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud, Virginia Tadei

Microbial life in glacier-fed streams (GFSs) is dominated by benthic biofilms which fulfill critical ecosystem processes. However, it remains unclear how the bacterial communities of these biofilms assemble in stream ecosystems characterized by rapid turno ...

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY2022

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

Numerical Simulations of an Innovative Water Stirring Device for Fine Sediment Release: The Case Study of the Future Trift Reservoir

Pedro Filipe De Almeida Manso, Azin Amini, Anass Chraibi

Reservoir sedimentation and consequently lack of storage volume and perturbation of the operation of intakes and bottom outlet is a key challenge affecting both hydropower production as well as dam safety and flood management. In the framework of a peer-re ...

Springer2020

Design of sediment detention basins: Scaled model experiments and application

Anton Schleiss, Mona Jafarnejad Chaghooshi, Sebastian Schwindt, Anita Hélène Roth

Sediment detention basins are implemented on mountain rivers to trap solid material that may aggravate the flooding of downstream settlements. However, retention structures built in the past may unnecessarily retain sediment during non-hazardous flood even ...

2020

Estimating Mean Bedload Transport Rates and Their Uncertainty

Christophe Ancey, Ivan Pascal

Measuring bedload transport rates usually involves measuring the flux of sediment or collecting sediment during a certain interval of time Δt. Because bedload transport rates exhibit significant non‐Gaussian fluctuations, their time‐averaged rates depend a ...

2020

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

Morphology and morphodynamics of braided rivers: an experimental investigation

Daniel Vito Papa

Braided rivers form some of the most fascinating fluvial patterns found on Earth. They are identifiable by their unique morphology of complex networks of intertwined channels that spread across wide floodplains. Detailed knowledge of their dynamics is need ...

EPFL2020