Case Study of Fluvial Modeling of River Responses to Dam Removal

A plan was made to remove Matilija Dam on the Ventura River. With dam removal, the delta in the reservoir and the downstream channel were expected to undergo major changes in morphology. The FLUVIAL-12 model was employed to simulate reservoir and river channel responses after dam removal. As a first step, the model was calibrated using the Ventura River data to establish its validity. In calibration, the model was used to simulate the fluvial processes starting from the time of dam completion. The simulated sediment deposition above the Matilija Dam matches closely with the deposits measured by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. A large amount of sediment was stored in the reservoir; some of the stored sediment would be transported downstream after dam removal. An important consequence of dam removal is the major increase of sediment release to the river channel downstream. The sediment supply to the downstream reach is not only from the stored sediment in the reservoir but also from natural sediment inflow from the upstream watershed. Therefore, sediment supply to the downstream reach will exceed the natural sediment flow before the dam presence. This situation tends to overload the downstream reach with sediment, resulting in excessive deposition. The amount of sediment release from the area above the removed dam is closely related to the changes in reservoir morphology. It is necessary to model changes in the channel bed profile and channel width during erosion in order to determine the amount of sediment removal. The amount of sediment release may not be simulated using an erodible-bed model but it may be determined using an erodible boundary model.