Development of Instrumented Experimental Facility for the Study of Large Scale River Morphology, Stratigraphy, and Landscape Evolution

9512472 Parker This Academic Research Infrastructure grant provides $250,000 as one-half support of the development of an experimental facility for the study of large scale river morphology, stratigraphy and landscape evolution. The facility will be constructed at the St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Laboratory, University of Minnesota in an existing indoor basin that is 14.3 m long and 7.3 m wide. The main elements of the basin will include, a rainmaker for simulating various hydrologic regimes, a hinged floor to simulate tectonic uplift and subsidence, a zone of ponded water and feed points for water and sediment along the basin. All elements of the basin are to be computer controlled and monitored by a data acquisition system. The main subsystems of the data acquisition system will be two computer controlled laser profilers for precision measurements of microrelief, a particle imaging velocimetry system for instantaneous measurement of surface flow velocities, an optical imaging system for instantaneous determination of channel depth and a stereoimaging system for determination of overall topography. This project is to be constructed and utilized by an interdisciplinary team consisting of a civil engineer, a sedimentologist, an environmental engineer, an agricultural engineer and an engineer with considerable knowledge of electronics. The basin is to be operable in both subaerial and subaqueous mode allowing for studies of both riverine processes and terrestrial landscape evolution and studies of continental shelf, slope and rise evolution. An automated mesocosm of this kind allows for the control of governing variables and monitoring on time and spatial scales that are not easily observed in field situations. This facility should provide a bridge between simulation and field research that hastens the development of new predictive tools and it is intended that the facility be made available to a broad spectrum of outside researchers. ***