[en] This study investigates the parameters controlling bedload distances in several gravel-bed rivers of a medium mountain (Morvan, France). Using PIT tags introduced into pebbles and cobbles, an examination of the relationship between several hydro-morphometric variables and travel distance was first undertaken with bivariate analysis. Bedload distances of our 6 study sites show important differences and this discrepancy cannot fully be understood considering only the stream power for the peak discharge, especially in multi-peak surveys such as ours. Stream impulse, a variable combining flow intensity and flow competence duration, has a stronger correlation with bedload distances. The analysis also indicates a varying influence of relative grain size, relative flow depth, bed slope and width/depth ratio. Among all these parameters, in order of importance, the relative grain size, the slope, and the stream impulse, emerge as the most significant explanatory variables from a multivariate analysis. The role of the relative grain size on bedload transport underlines the importance of grain size sorting and microtopography in plane-bed rivers. The influence of the slope is ambivalent: favoring bedload distances under certain circumstances and lowering them under others. The direction of the influence of the slope seems to depend on its combination with other morpho-sedimentary or hydraulical parameters. Finally, we propose a single equation for bedload distance prediction that predicts travel distance rather well.
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Gilet, Louis ; Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Laboratoire de Géographie Physique, CNRS UMR8591, Meudon cedex, France
Gob, Frédéric; Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Laboratoire de Géographie Physique, CNRS UMR8591, Meudon cedex, France
Gautier, Emmanuèle; Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Laboratoire de Géographie Physique, CNRS UMR8591, Meudon cedex, France
EDF - Électricité de France AESN - Agence de l'Eau Seine Normandie
Funding text :
The authors would like to thank Matthieu Moës and the Agence de l'Eau Seine-Normandie (public water agency), for financing the research work leading to this paper. We are also very grateful to Jean-René Malavoi and Electricité de France (EDF) as well as the PIREN Seine for the financial support they provided for the purchase of research equipment and for fieldwork missions. We extend our sincere appreciation to Jonathan Touche for his help on the field and Natasha Shields for her assistance in translating. Finally, we would like to thank F. Comiti and the anonymous reviewer for their thoughtful comments that enabled the quality of the original paper to be greatly improved.
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