Sedimentary processes and transport mechanisms in aquatic environments are key features for various research disciplines, e.g. in geomorphological and paleo-climatological research or in hydraulics and river engineering. In addition to advanced measurement and monitoring techniques, numerical models have become a powerful tool in the research field of hydraulic engineering and geosciences to assess complex hydro-morphological processes, such as erosion, deposition or fan development, affect open water environments.

The main goal of this session is to bring together scholars using innovative measurement techniques and monitoring concepts as well as results of numerical models, which are important to determine the transport processes in open water environments, including rivers and estuaries as well as lakes and reservoirs or coastal and marine environments. Therefore, this session is organized with two sub-blocks, targeting on field work and modelling each.

Block A) Measurement and monitoring techniques for evaluating hydro-morphological processes

In this block we focus on the determination and evaluation of bed load and suspended load transport, morphological bed changes and morphologically relevant processes like bed form development, bed armouring, colmation, consolidation, flocculation, resuspension or hindered settling.
In addition, an accurate evaluation of erosion and deposition rates and consequent morphological changes, bed material composition and sediment fluxes is fundamental for the development of sediment budgets and for the calibration and validation of numerical models.
Contributions are welcome with a particular focus on single and combined measurement techniques, on post-processing methods as well as on innovative and advanced monitoring concepts. Furthermore, we welcome contributions that are presenting recent results in a temporal and spatial scale, on sediment budgets, and on morphodynamic processes.


Block B) Numerical modelling of hydro-morphological processes

With improved algorithms as well as increasing computational power, it became feasible to simulate the interaction of water, sediments and air (multiphase flows) with high resolution in space and time. In addition, with the increasing quantity and quality of validation and verification data, both from laboratory and field experiments, numerical models become more accurate and it is possible to gain new insight in complex physical processes, e.g. dune development, river bed armoring or density driven transport.
Despite the increasing number of good examples on numerical modelling of sediment transport, there are still many open questions to be addressed (e.g. modelling of inhomogeneous bed material, role of turbulence in resuspension, simulation of bank erosion, complex free surface problems etc.). Therefore, this session includes numerical modelling from small-scale, such as bed structure development, to large-scale interactions, such as long-term development of hydro-morphological processes in river reaches, lakes, reservoirs and estuaries.
We invite contributions that deal with the development, the improvement, as well as the application of numerical models for multiphase flows in open water environments. Topics of interest are modelling of sediment transport and multiphase flows in all spatial and temporal scales.