Lab 5.1: Fluvial System Visit

Introduction

This lab will have you visit a real-life fluvial system! With your tutorial group, you will be visiting Coldwater Creek in West Campus, which is located by Parking Lots M and P. Please meet your TA at the shuttle bus stop by Lot M (see map below) at the schedule time for your lab. If you anticipate needing extra time to get to this location, please let the TA know ahead of time. You are responsible for having everything you need: weather appropriate clothing, closed toe footwear, pen/pencil, notebook, and something to take photos (phone, camera). Rainboots/waders are not necessary, but please bring them if you have them available as they may be helpful.

Figure 1. Map of meeting location for Lab 5 highlighted in the red and orange star.

In addition to the site visit, you will be asked to compute basic hydraulic and sediment transport calculations on Coldwater Creek based on existing measurements that will be provided to you.

Tasks

1) Site Visit (25 pts)

Choose a sub-reach of Coldwater Creek approximately 100 m in length. This will be your study reach.

a) Sketch out a planform map of your study reach roughly to scale (7 pts).  Your sketch should include the following:

• • Both banks of the channel
  • The flow direction
  • Infrastructure present (e.g., bridge, roads, parking lot, culvert etc.) with appropriate labels
  • Any prominent vegetation (e.g., large trees, grass patches, large wood in the channel)
  • Labels for the channel and floodplain

b) Sketch out an average cross-section of your study reach roughly to scale (7 pts).  Your sketch should include the following:

• • Both banks and the bed of the channel
  • The floodplain
  • The flow direction
  • Infrastructure present (e.g., bridge, roads, parking lot, culvert etc.) with appropriate labels
  • Any prominent vegetation (e.g., large trees, grass patches, large wood in the channel)
  • The current water surface elevation

c) Provide appropriately labelled photos of your study reach showing the following features. Photos should include something to establish scale and always indicate the flow direction (either with an arrow or in the figure caption) (5 pts).

• • The planform (this may require more than one photo)
  • Channel cross-section,
  • Any additional photos of gynomorphically interesting features (e.g., large wood, infrastructure, bedforms like bars)

d) Based on your observations and using your field photos as evidence, comment on the following (6 pts):

• • The planform pattern of Coldwater Creek
  • The channel morphology of Coldwater Creek and presence of any bedforms
  • The dominant sediment size present in Coldwater Creek