US-Italy Cooperative Research: International Collaboration: Flow Hydraulics Along Step-Pool Channels

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0216951WohlThis one-year award for US-Italian collaboration in flow hydraulics along step-pool channels involves Ellen Wohl at Colorado State University and Mario Lenzo at the University of Padova in Italy. The objectives of the project are to add an international dimension to an ongoing experimental and field study of step-pool hydraulics. The goal of the project is to provide comparative data to measurements at East St. Louis Creek in the Colorado Rocky Mountains through a study of the Rio Cordon, a 5 km 2 watershed in the eastern Italian alps, which experiences periodic step-destabilizing floods followed by step re-formation.The US researchers bring to the collaboration expertise in the step-pool hydraulics in the Colorado Rockies, where the step-pool channels are very stable and do not permit direct measurement of hydraulic parameters during step-reorganization. This is complemented by the Italian researcher's extensive experience of the Rio Cordon, including ten years of automatically measured data, in addition to detailed field surveys of numerous channel reaches which have facilitated the study of step-pool evolution following flood-associated increases in discharge and sediment transport.The data resulting from this collaboration are expected to contribute to an improved understanding of step-pool hydraulics of great interest to both US and Italian groups, and to other researchers working in the Rio Cordon basin. One broader impact of this research lies in the access to diverse field sites, research methods, and research communities for two US Ph.D. students. A second impact of the research will be increased understanding and prediction of the mechanics of high-gradient channels, which supply a disproportionately large amount of water and sediment to lowland regions, which are at great risk than lowland channels for alterations associated with climate change and human activities.