An Indiana University-led research team has made a new discovery that will help experts use groundbreaking algorithms to predict and mitigate flood damage caused by river avulsions, a process in which flowing rivers water breaks through natural levees and flows on top of them. This blog will provide particular coverage of the major findings from their research, including how they used revolutionary technology and what implications this has for climate change.
Deciphering the Enigma of River Avulsions
For centuries humans have been fascinated and frightened by river avulsions, the sudden and huge channels with a new way) in rivers. These catastrophes omens gave rise to ancient flood myths and created some of the worst floods in human history.
The research team, led by James ‘Jake’ G. Gearon, Ph. But a researcher working at the end of his Ph.D. in Indiana has now set down an innovative way to predict exactly when and where these things happen. The researchers, from the University of Queensland, which contributed in part to their study on freshwater ecosystems around the worldThey have found that river avulsions develop in predictable patterns, just like weather patterns.
Avulsions are surprisingly most common near mountain ranges and coastlines, where sediment accumulates rapidly. They also devised a new model to help map ‘avulsion corridors’ — hypothetical places where rivers might migrate when they abandon their current channel. It is a potent tool for efficient and preventive measures on part of governments or even urban planners towards an impulsive flood.
Unlocking the Mysteries of River Dynamics with Satellite Tech
The Indiana University researchers didn’t just do what others have done before to study river avulsions. They capitalized on state-of-the-art satellite design by employing a novel satellite that carries an experimental type of instrument, lidar (LIE-dar), to determine the topography near rivers.
This forward-thinking idea has enabled the team to better account for dense vegetation which may mask important landscape features associated with river avulsions. This entails penetrating the vegetation and mapping the bare-earth elevations, but provides an unprecedented level of detail and accuracy which would otherwise be unattainable.
This unprecedented ability to capture data defined the framework within which the researchers tested a set of hypotheses about what drives river avulsions—“one of the most debated problems in earth sciences,” he said—and allowed them to develop their new predictive model. River2D is a game-changer in the field of river dynamics and flood risk assessment as it enables us to more precisely measure and model the complex interactions between rivers with their surrounding landscapes.
Conclusion
The results of the Indiana University research may change the way we think about and deal with river avulsions. In getting those estimates to be as accurate, repeatable and rapid as possible, the researchers have given governments, planners and communities the means of preparing for sudden river course changes that can kill more than 1000 people on one day. With climate change reshaping global water cycles and human expansion into flood-prone areas on the rise, these new understandings of how river networks behave and the model they developed for flooding could be the means to save numerous lives and billions in economic costs. This points to direct applications of the research far outside the scientific community, suggesting what is perhaps a faint light in the face backdrop of one of the most unpredictable and deadly natural occurrences on Earth.
