Welcome

River Analyst is a web app featuring a novel database approach for leveraging hydro-environmental analyses of exponentially-growing, dataype diverse river data. To-date investigations of our field team resulted in an unprecedented open-source river database that can be queried and visualized for free (Query and Analysis tabs).

Access to the data upload feature (Upload tab) is restricted to authorized users only. User credentials can be obtained through our team to enable research collaboration. To request access, please contact us via the email addresses listed on the footer of this page.

Description of measuring methods

Surface and subsurface sediment sampling

Sediment sampling involve collecting sediments with the help of shovels, for instance, and bringing them to the lab for drying (conventionally at 105 °C for 24 h) and subsequent dry sieving with sieves according to the Wentworth (1922) scale. Sieving analyses of surface and subsurface samples from the overlayer and underlayer, respectively, enable to derive several sedimentological parameters that characterize the substrate. Another method for subsurface sampling is the freeze core method (Carling & Reader, 1981), which involves pulling out frozen sediment samples from the riverbed with a tripod.

MultiPAC for substrate assessment

MultiPAC (Negreiros et al., 2023; Seitz, 2020) is a multi-parameter approach to assess riverbed clogging and vertical hyporheic connectivity, which consists of measuring multiple riverbed physico-chemical parameters, namely riverbed:

• grain size characteristics
• porosity
• interstitial dissolved oxygen (IDO)
• hydraulic conductivity (kf)

The grain size and riverbed porosity are derived from freeze cores and represent bulk parameter values for a given xy measurement point. The interstitial dissolved oxygen (IDO) and hydraulic conductivity (kf) are measured as vertical profiles along the riverbed depth and thus enable to locate depths layers with low hyporheic habitat quality.

In-situ flow velocity measurements

Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) devices (e.g., Flowtracker2, SonTek) enables to determine multi-dimensional flow velocity vectors (x, y, and z) of surface flow. This data is crucial for the validation of hydrodynamic numerical models. Additional hydrodynamic data, such as turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), can be derived from measured temporal velocity fluctuations to investigate morphological features for habitat enhancement.

The FlowTracker2 uses acoustic Doppler technology to measure velocity at multiple points in a water column. The device consists of a handheld unit that houses the electronics and transducers, and a set of probes that are inserted into the water to take velocity measurements. The device can measure velocity in both shallow and deep water, and is suitable for a range of applications, in particular river or stream gauging.

Selected publications

Negreiros, B., Aybar Galdos, A., Seitz, L., Noack, M., Schwindt, S., Wieprecht, S., & Haun, S. (2023) A multi-parameter approach to quantify riverbed clogging and vertical hyporheic connectivity. River Research and Applications. doi: 10.1002/rra.4145

Kunz, M., Negreiros, B., Schwindt, S., Haun, S., Noack, M., and Wieprecht, S. (2021) Inn-ovative morphological restoration efforts. International Symposium on Bedload Management. doi: 10.3929/ethz-b-000513098

Seitz, L. (2020). Development of new methods to apply a multiparameter approach-a first step towards the determination of colmation. PhD Thesis. doi: 0.18419/opus-11249

Seitz, L., Haas, C., Noack, M., & Wieprecht, S. (2018). From picture to porosity of river bed material using Structure-from-Motion with Multi-View-Stereo. Geomorphology. doi: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2018.01.014

Disclaimer

No warranty is expressed or implied regarding the usefulness or completeness of the information and documentation provided. References to commercial products do not imply endorsement by the Author. The concepts, materials, and methods used in the algorithms and described in the documentation are for informational purposes only. The Author has made substantial effort to ensure the accuracy of the algorithms and the documentation, but the Author shall not be held liable, nor his employer or funding sponsors, for calculations and/or decisions made on the basis of application of the scripts and documentation. The information is provided “as is” and anyone who chooses to use the information is responsible for her or his own choices as to what to do with the data. The individual is responsible for the results that follow from their decisions.

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