Case Study: Modeling the Lateral Mobility of the Rio Grande below Cochiti Dam, New Mexico
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 131, Issue 11
Abstract
The Cochiti reach of the Rio Grande served as a case study to test the hypothesis that the lateral mobility of an alluvial river decreases as the river approaches equilibrium. The lateral mobility of the river was measured using a geographic information system from digitized aerial photographs of the nonvegetated active channel between 1918 and 2001. Reach-averaged lateral mobility was quantified in terms of width change, lateral migration, and total lateral movement. By 2001, the width of the Cochiti Reach was close to the expected equilibrium width indicating that the river had adjusted to the incoming water and sediment load. An exponential equation based on deviation from equilibrium width described 95–96% of the variance in channel width, 78–90% of variance in migration rates, and 92% of the variance in total lateral movement between 1918 and 1992. For validation of the model, the 2001 width and migration rates were predicted with errors as low as 19 and 8%, respectively. The exponential width model was also applied to four other rivers that exhibited narrowing trends following dam construction and explained 82–89% of the variance in width change on those rivers.
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Acknowledgments
This paper is primarily the result of the analysis of the first writer during her PhD studies at Colorado State University. Funding from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation during the course of the study is gratefully acknowledged. However the results do not necessarily reflect policies or endorsement of Reclamation. The writers are grateful to Paula Makar, Jan Oliver, and Viola Sanchez at Reclamation. The compilation of the data has also been completed at CSU in collaboration with Claudia Leon and Travis Bauer who individually contributed to this study.
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Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 131 • Issue 11 • November 2005
Pages: 931 - 941
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Jun 11, 2002
Accepted: Jun 6, 2004
Published online: Nov 1, 2005
Published in print: Nov 2005
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