Transport Mechanisms across Geomorphic Transitions: Capturing Spatial and Temporal Evolution of River-Floodplain Connectivity within the Trinity River System

河流和洪泛区之间的联系控制着水、营养物、污染物和其他物质通过河流系统的运输，从而影响河流的功能、洪泛区的碳储存、沉积物移动和生态系统功能。该项目利用高分辨率地形分析和建模能力的最新进展，适用于德克萨斯州的Trinity河，使河流和洪泛区之间的相互作用的新的理解。一种创新的方法来分析河流和洪泛区之间的动态边界，以提高水和其他材料如何通过这个复杂的界面移动的理解。项目活动还有助于开发和传播河流建模能力，并为高中和大学生提供基于研究的学习经验。该项目结合了大量的实地观测、激光雷达数据集、数值建模和先进的特征提取和分析工具，以量化德克萨斯州Trinity河的河流-洪泛区连通性。这项研究是围绕一个两部分的总体假设，即（一）准确表征的水，溶质和固体之间的河流和漫滩的交换，需要治疗的移动内部边界的渠道银行，和（ii）这些移动的边界调节水和沉积物的流动在时间和空间上不同的方式在两个域之间。这项研究改变了河流和河漫滩之间的边界通常被视为和分析的方式，从一个静态的边界划定河流的结束和河漫滩开始，地貌的过渡，其时空演变控制河流和河漫滩之间的相互作用。多个计划活动整合了研究和教育，以促进地球科学和工程中不同群体的融合，并弥合数据分析师和建模师之间的差距。该奖项由地貌土地共同资助&，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查进行评估，被认为值得支持的搜索.

Connections between rivers and floodplains control the transport of water, nutrients, pollutants, and other materials through river systems, thus affecting the functioning of rivers, storage of carbon on floodplains, sediment movement, and ecosystem functioning. This project harnesses recent advancements in high-resolution topographic analyses and modeling capabilities, applied to the Trinity River in Texas, to enable new understanding of the interactions between rivers and floodplains. An innovative approach to analyzing the dynamic boundary between river and floodplain is used to improve understanding of how water and other materials move through this complex interface. Project activities also contribute to development and dissemination of river modeling capabilities and the advancement of research-based learning experiences for high school and college students.This project combines an extensive collection of field observations, lidar data sets, numerical modeling, and advanced tools for feature extraction and analysis, to quantify river-floodplain connectivity of the Trinity River, Texas. The research is articulated around a two-part overarching hypothesis that (i) accurate characterization of exchanges in water, solutes, and solids between a river and its floodplain requires treating channel banks as moving internal boundaries, and (ii) these moving boundaries regulate the flow of water and sediment between the two domains in ways that differ in time and space. This research changes the way in which the boundary between the river and its floodplain is commonly viewed and analyzed; from a static boundary demarcating where the river ends and the floodplain begins, to a geomorphic transition whose spatial and temporal evolution controls the interactions between a river and its floodplain. Multiple planned activities integrate research and education to advance the inclusion of diverse groups in the geosciences and engineering and to bridge the gap between data analysts and modelers.This award is co-funded by the Geomorphology & Land-use Dynamics and Hydrologic Sciences programs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.