On the road with the Rolling Stones

During floods, rivers and streams also transport bedload; i.e., gravel, stones, and boulders. Natural rivers and streams are supplied with sufficient bedload from upstream. Artificial obstacles such as weirs can stop the bedload supply. Downstream, the river can incise; i.e., the river bed lowers due to erosion. This can be associated with problems such as uncoupling of the floodplain from the river, lowering of the water table, or undermining of flood control structures. Bedload transport requires large-scale consideration.

A contribution to rivers from the research program "Hydraulic Engineering and Ecology" of Eawag, WSL, PL-LCH EPFL, VAW ETH Zurich and the Federal Office for the Environment.

Web: www.rivermanagement.ch
Production: Studio Flavio Vogel