Bank erosion processes in waterways

Abstract

Waterways
serve for several functions besides  transporting
goods and people. The ecological  importance
of navigable rivers has taken much  attention
during recent decades bringing efforts  to
improve these natural corridors for fauna and 
flora (Boeters et al., 1997).  Following
the policy of the European Water  Framework
Directive (WFD), many Dutch river  reaches
have been recently restored through the  removal
of bank protections in search for better 
riparian habitats (Florsheim et al., 2009), but they  also result exposed to erosive forces. Large  uncertainties generally surround the
prediction of  erosion rates (e.g. Samadi
et al., 2009) due to  complex flow
characteristics in the near-bank  region,
variable soil properties, etc. A better  understanding
of bank erosion processes is then  of
interest to predict erosion rates and improve 
the design of future interventions.