Integrating Connectivity Into Hydrodynamic Models: An Automated Open‐Source Method to Refine an Unstructured Mesh Using Remote Sensing

Wright, Kyle; Passalacqua, Paola; Simard, Marc; Jones, Cathleen E.

doi:10.1029/2022ms003025

Cited by 12 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 64 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The model was calibrated for the WLD in Wright et al. (2022) and it was shown to match observations well. The numerical domain is partitioned by an unstructured mesh of triangular grid cells.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The numerical domain is partitioned by an unstructured mesh of triangular grid cells. Details on the forcing conditions, set up and model validation can be found in Wright et al (2022).…”

Section: Validation Of the Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This condition implies that streaklines correspond with streamlines (i.e., curves tangential to the local fluid velocity), and water fluxes and flow velocities can be quantified based on the distance between these curves. To test the reliability of the proposed methodology, the flow velocities computed from remote sensing data are compared with high‐resolution numerical modeling results obtained by means of the ANUGA numerical framework (Roberts et al., 2015) and calibrated for the WLD (Wright et al., 2022). This study shows a generalized approach which utilizes streaklines to compute the velocity field in river deltas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Quantifying Flow Velocities in River Deltas via Remotely Sensed Suspended Sediment Concentration

Donatelli

Passalacqua

Wright

et al. 2023

Geophysical Research Letters

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Deltas are fragile ecosystems threatened by sea‐level rise, sediment starvation, and subsidence. Erosional/depositional processes in these systems mainly depend on the sediment supply and the spatial divergence in bed shear stress induced by hydrodynamic forces. Thus, quantifying the spatiotemporal variability of the flow velocity field is essential for forecasting their fate. To calibrate/validate models, field measurements alone are not sufficient because such data only characterize the hydrodynamic conditions in localized areas. Remote sensing has potential to fill this data gap. We developed a methodology to estimate flow velocities from a map of suspended sediment concentration (SSC) measured by the NASA airborne spectrometer AVIRIS‐NG within the Wax Lake Delta, Louisiana. We extracted streaklines from remotely sensed SSC estimates, and quantified water fluxes and velocities based on the distance between them. Our study demonstrates that the velocity field in deltas can be estimated by leveraging the synoptic information offered by remote sensing.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The numerical domain is partitioned by an unstructured mesh of triangular grid cells. Details on the forcing conditions, set up and model validation can be found in Wright et al (2022).…”

Section: Validation Of the Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Quantifying Flow Velocities in River Deltas via Remotely Sensed Suspended Sediment Concentration

Donatelli

Passalacqua

Wright

et al. 2023

Geophysical Research Letters

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Predicting and managing flow through heterogeneous vegetated wetland/channel networks (Wright et al, 2018) will be key to developing an operational understanding of spatially heterogenous delta flows and improving the overall understanding of SRE in a way that can advance in basin side restoration design strategies. While the heterogeneous flow paths through vegetated regions remain difficult to quantify and to model (Wright et al, 2018(Wright et al, , 2022, their importance to restoration efforts is clear. We therefore argue that a deeper understanding of the role that vegetation plays in setting flow patterns in deltaic wetlands, and representing that heterogeneity in predictive models, are key next steps.…”

Section: River Diversions and Coastal Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation‐Driven Seasonal Sediment Dynamics in a Freshwater Marsh of the Mississippi River Delta

et al. 2023

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Deltaic wetlands are uniquely vulnerable to sea level rise due to their coastal setting, low elevation gradient, and the high rate of subsidence in recently deposited sediments (Blum & Roberts, 2009;Giosan et al., 2014;Hoitink et al., 2020;Törnqvist et al., 2020). Many deltas host dense human populations that rely on vast expanses of wetlands for critical ecosystem services including protection from storms (e.g., Edmonds et al., 2020). Despite the vulnerability that is inherent in a delta setting, deltaic ecosystems are also uniquely able to adapt to sea level rise by making use of the riverine sediment transport system to locally increase elevation. A delta's distributary channels provide both the source of sediment and the means for delivering sediment to the locations where it can be most useful for land building. In many deltas the connections between distributary channels and the delta plain have been restricted (e.g., Esposito et al., 2020), and land use managers are working to plan diversions of water and sediment that will leverage delta sediment transport processes to deliver sediment to vulnerable or valuable wetlands (

show abstract

“…For hydrodynamic modeling, we use a preexisting ANUGA model of the combined WLD/ATD system from Wright et al (2022).…”

Section: Hydrodynamic Modeling With Anugamentioning

confidence: 99%

From Grains to Plastics: Modeling Nourishment Patterns and Hydraulic Sorting of Fluvially Transported Materials in Deltas

et al. 2022

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Understanding the way fluvially transported materials are partitioned in river deltas is essential for predicting their morphological change and the fate of environmental constituents and contaminants. Translating water‐based partitioning estimates into fluxes of nonwater materials is often difficult to constrain because most materials are not uniformly distributed in the water column and may have characteristic transport pathways that differ from the mean flow. Here, we present a novel reduced‐complexity modeling approach for simulating the patterns of transport of a diverse range of suspended fluvial inputs influenced by vertical stratification and topographic steering. We utilize a mixed Eulerian‐Lagrangian modeling approach to estimate the patterns of nourishment and connectivity in the Wax Lake and Atchafalaya Deltas in coastal Louisiana. Using the reduced‐complexity particle routing model dorado, in conjunction with a calibrated ANUGA hydrodynamic model, we quantify how transport patterns in each system change as a function of a material's Rouse number and environmental conditions. We find that even small changes to local topographic steering lead to emergent system‐scale changes in patterns of fluvial nourishment, with greater channel‐island connectivity for positively buoyant materials than negatively buoyant materials, hydraulically sorting different materials in space. We also find that the nourishment patterns of some materials are more sensitive than others to changes in discharge, tidal conditions, and anthropogenic dredging. Our results have important implications for understanding the eco‐geomorphic evolution of deltas, and our modeling framework could have interdisciplinary implications for studying the transport of materials in other systems, including sediments, nutrients, wood, plastics, and biotic materials.

show abstract

Integrating Connectivity Into Hydrodynamic Models: An Automated Open‐Source Method to Refine an Unstructured Mesh Using Remote Sensing

Cited by 12 publications

References 64 publications

Quantifying Flow Velocities in River Deltas via Remotely Sensed Suspended Sediment Concentration

Quantifying Flow Velocities in River Deltas via Remotely Sensed Suspended Sediment Concentration

Vegetation‐Driven Seasonal Sediment Dynamics in a Freshwater Marsh of the Mississippi River Delta

From Grains to Plastics: Modeling Nourishment Patterns and Hydraulic Sorting of Fluvially Transported Materials in Deltas

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About