Sedimentation occupies the storage capacity of reservoirs and reduces the amount of available surface water resource. The countermeasure to the sedimentation is required especially in arid land where the land erosion is very severe due to low vegetation in the catchment area, and even fine particles are deposited because of the low water rotation of the reservoirs under the climatic condition of clear difference between rainy season and drought season. However, it has not been carried out because the conventional technologies against the sedimentation, such as dredging or bypass for sediment inflow, are quite costly.The authors proposed the exploitation idea which can valorize the sediment and will financially assist the cost of dredging or other countermeasures to the sedimentation. One of the exploitation ways is producing construction bricks. Sediment in Tunisian reservoirs is fine and sticky clay or silt, so there is a potential of the material for producing ceramics. In this study, the current situation of the production of the construction bricks in Tunisia was surveyed; price of raw material, a wholesale price, market price, processing cost and material flow. This information defines the market of construction bricks and the possibility of reservoir sediment for the production of construction bricks can be evaluated.Physical feasibility of the sediment for construction bricks was also investigated by the trial production of small pieces of slate and carrying out the flexure test with them. The slate samples made from the sediment gave almost same strength as the slate made from clay which is used in a brick factory in Tunisia.
Certain part of wash load which entered a reservoir is settled on the bed as sediment. Sediment occupies the storage capacity of reservoirs and reduces the amount of available surface water resource. Especially in North Africa which has the low vegetation land cover in the catchment and long retention time due to the clear precipitation difference between summer and winter, the wash load inflow and the sedimentation ratio is very high. In order to discuss managing the sedimentation, the behaviour of the wash load in the water body of a reservoir have to be grasped. In this study, sediment traps and auto recording thermometers were placed in the different depth in order to know what depth the floodwater enters. The amount of trapped sediment is equivalent to average sedimentation ratio. In addition, the bed area which might receive the sedimentation is estimated by numerical simulation. The volume of sediment estimated from the trapped sediment and the bed area is almost equivalent to the sediment volume which was estimated by the bathymetric survey.
In the North Africa countries, sediments deposition in the reservoir dams reduces the available surface water resources by 2 to 5% per year. In Tunisia, even many efforts are made to protect reservoir dams against soil erosion, the sedimentation still very important and constitute a limitation their time duration. In order to better understand these phenomena, bathymetry, turbidity, suspended soil particles and sediments were monitored for two reservoir dams in Tunisia: Joumine and Sejnane. These data will be interpreted in order to better characterize the sedimentation process and identify the determinant factors. Geostatistical Technics are applied to the bathymetric data in order to simulate the evolution, in time and in space, of the morphology of the reservoir dams and to estimate the distribution of the sediments deposits. The results for the two dams will permit to better understand the influence of the initial geometry of the reservoir dams on the sedimentation process and to deduce the main water flow path lines. Turbidity, suspended particles and sediments particles size profiles established for fixed stations in the reservoir dams will be interpreted in order to better understand the sedimentation process in the reservoirs dams and to characterize the influence of the initial reservoir geometry.
In the North Africa countries, sediments deposition in the reservoir dams reduces the available surface water resources by 2 to 5% per year. In Tunisia, even many efforts are made to protect reservoir dams against soil erosion, the sedimentation still very important and constitute a limitation their time duration. In order to better understand these phenomena, bathymetry, turbidity, suspended soil particles and sediments were monitored for two reservoir dams in Tunisia: Joumine and Sejnane. These data will be interpreted in order to better characterize the sedimentation process and identify the determinant factors. Geostatistical Technics are applied to the bathymetric data in order to simulate the evolution, in time and in space, of the morphology of the reservoir dams and to estimate the distribution of the sediments deposits. The results for the two dams will permit to better understand the influence of the initial geometry of the reservoir dams on the sedimentation process and to deduce the main water flow path lines. Turbidity, suspended particles and sediments particles size profiles established for fixed stations in the reservoir dams will be interpreted in order to better understand the sedimentation process in the reservoirs dams and to characterize the influence of the initial reservoir geometry.
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