Advances in Monitoring and Understanding the Dynamics of Suspended-Sediment Transport in the River Drava, Slovenia: An Analysis More than a Decade-Long

Abstract

Managing sediment transport in streams is crucial to the surface water resource development strategy and has several implications for flood risk and water management, hydropower use, and balancing river morphology. This paper summarises the movement and behaviour of suspended sediment within the Slovenian portion of the River Drava, covering a span of thirteen years from 2005 to 2018. An analysis of relevant data collected during this period is also presented. Suspended-sediment dynamics strongly depend on flow velocity, seasonal variations in sediment sources, and human interventions in the riverbed. The transportation of material in the River Drava results in the accumulation of sediments in reservoirs and riverbeds, consequently impeding the natural hydrological cycle by reducing the outflow into aquifers. The 2018 high-water event is analysed in terms of the dependence of concentration of suspended sediments on discharge, where counterclockwise hysteresis was observed, providing an essential clue to the origin of sediment. Sediments from the River Drava in Slovenia are managed with some conventional processes and are mainly deposited or reintegrated into rivers and aquatic ecosystems. Some additional sediment management strategies with long-term solutions for efficient and comprehensive water management, hydropower, and ecological problems are proposed.

Two-dimensional-one-dimensional splitting scheme for the numerical solution of problems of transport of multicomponent suspensions using θ coordinates

“…The numerical implementation of the model is based on additive splitting schemes along geometric directions. Real three-dimensional turbulence in coastal systems can be considered locally homogeneous and isotropic only on scales significantly smaller than the depth of the water area, since the stratification of water in a well-mixed shallow reservoir is limited by the maximum vertical size of turbulent eddies [2][3][4][5][6]. It is believed that for the latter reason, the process of turbulent mixing can be divided into horizontal turbulent exchange and vertical turbulent diffusion.…”