Hydraulic Engineering Commons^™

Movable Bed Physical Model Investigation Of Bed Level Changes Caused By River Sediment Diversions, Hayden Cole Franklin

LSU Master's Theses

Since 1932, due to human and natural processes, over 2,000 square miles of Louisiana’s coast have been lost. River sediment diversions have been proposed as sustainable options to combat land loss. These projects, like the proposed Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, are designed to deliver sediment-rich Mississippi River water into nearby bays and estuaries, helping build and maintain land. However, river sediment diversions may alter river hydraulics and sediment transport, potentially inducing upstream degradation and downstream aggradation. Using the Lower Mississippi River Physical Model (LMRPM), this study quantitatively analyzed bed level changes as well as hydraulic conditions associated with the proposed Mid-Barataria …

Lithological Modeling And Aquifer Characterization Of The Coastal Lowlands Aquifer System In Texas, Emmanuel Egyin Hayford

LSU Master's Theses

The Texas Coastal Lowlands Aquifer System (CLAS) is a crucial water resource for the Gulf Coast, serving millions through municipal, agricultural, and industrial supplies. However, its sustainability is increasingly threatened by factors such as population growth, saltwater intrusion, land subsidence, and climate change. A significant limitation is the absence of a comprehensive, data-rich, three-dimensional lithologic model that accurately represents the intricate structure and geometry of the aquifer. Existing models are overly simplistic, treating the hydrogeologic unit as laterally uniform and failing to capture its true hydrogeologic complexity. This study addresses this gap by developing the first high-resolution 3D lithologic model …

Quaternary Subsurface Characterization Of The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer: Insights From Interval Kriging And Airborne Em-Borehole Data Integration, Yuqi Song

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Pleistocene period significantly contributed to the formation of alluvial aquifer worldwide. These productive aquifers are crucial for domestic, industrial, and agricultural water supplies. The Mississippi River Valley alluvial aquifer (MRVA), a principal aquifer in the U.S., is crucial for national food security and global agricultural supply. This study aims to characterize the subsurface architecture of the MRVA, thereby enhancing fundamental understanding of sedimentological processes involved in the genesis of glacio-fluvial aquifers worldwide. The research objectives are threefold: (1) to provide a detailed characterization of the MRVA; (2) to develop 3D geostatistical methods for geological modeling; and (3) to develop …

Assessing Water Quantity And Quality In The Mississippi River Valley Alluvial Aquifer And Coastal Louisiana Through Integrated Airborne Electromagnetic And Borehole Data, Michael George Henin Attia Khalil

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Numerical modeling has contributed significantly to the understanding of groundwater systems. Many challenges are associated with constructing groundwater models which include an accurate understanding of the geology and aquifer parameters estimation. Traditionally boreholes are a successful way to capture geological features, however, boreholes often have sparse data. Airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data allows for efficient and cost-effective surveying of large areas, providing valuable information about the subsurface electrical resistivity. By bridging the gap between boreholes, AEM data offers a broader view of the aquifer system's structure and heterogeneity. However, interpreting geophysical AEM data has uncertainties. Developing a framework to apply the …

Development Of Satellite-Assisted Forecasting System For Vibrio Vulnificus Prevalence In Coastal Waters, Saber Aradpour

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Vibrio vulnificus is a halophilic gamma proteobacterium that is autochthonous to coastal waters and is responsible for 50% of seafood-related deaths in the United States. This study presents a series of nowcasting and forecasting models for predicting vibrio vulnificus abundance in oysters by identifying the long-range dependence of vibrio vulnificus abundance on antecedent environmental conditions and detecting the environmental conditions using satellite remote sensing technology. It was discovered that vibrio vulnificus abundance exhibits a long-range dependence on antecedent environmental conditions which can be characterized by seven independent environmental predictors (stressors) including sea surface temperature (SST), water level (WL), sea surface …

High-Resolution Groundwater Modeling For Understanding Sparta-Memphis Aquifer Condition, Rafin Hasan

LSU Master's Theses

The Sparta-Memphis aquifer is one of the major sources of domestic and industrial water supplies in the Mississippi Embayment region. However, besides altering the natural direction of flow, several serious complications such as elevated chloride concentration, significant water level decline, large cones of depression, and land subsidence have arisen from excessive groundwater consumption. To better understand the Sparta-Memphis aquifer condition, a high-resolution groundwater flow model for the Sparta-Memphis aquifer was developed in this study to assess groundwater availability and analyze aquifer responses to future groundwater withdrawal scenarios. For the development of the groundwater flow model, firstly about 3,700 electrical log …

Supply And Distribution Of Flow And Sediment In River And Delta System, Kazi M. Sadid

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

River deltas are valuable ecosystems that have been essential in supporting human populations and the economy across the world for centuries. However, climate change and human activities have caused significant land loss in delta areas. A prime example of a region that has suffered severe land loss is Louisiana in the United States. Coastal restoration is therefore essential for the livelihoods of its residents. To address this issue, the Lower Mississippi River (LMR) channel bar has been regularly dredged to rebuild degraded marsh areas. Additionally, sediment diversions off LMR have been designed to build marsh areas sustainably. This dissertation investigates …

Investigating Gulf Coast Aquifer System: Stratigraphy Reconstruction, Inverse Modeling, And Groundwater Stress Assessment, Shuo Yang

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Mississippi Embayment aquifer system (MEAS) and the Coastal Lowlands aquifer system (CLAS) provide substantial groundwater resources for human activities in the U.S. Gulf Coastal Plain. However, the overexploitation has led to groundwater depletion in the MEAS and the CLAS, threatening sustainable groundwater use. Such concern highlights the crucial need for an advanced understanding of stratigraphy and groundwater in these aquifer systems, which is essential for effective regional groundwater management. This dissertation presents a comprehensive investigation of MEAS and CLAS in the Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi region, encompassing three fundamental dimensions: stratigraphy reconstruction, groundwater modeling, and groundwater stress assessments. A …

Wave Attenuation Through Mangrove Forest Using Lidar Representation, Elizabeth Bogan

LSU Master's Theses

Mangrove forests can be found along the world’s intertidal tropical and sub-tropical coastlines. These forested wetlands provide many ecosystem services, including supporting coastal food chains, trapping sediment, and shoreline stabilization. Mangroves are also known for flood damage mitigation by dissipating waves and surge during flooding events. Thus, coastal communities declare a vested interest in the performance of the forest to mitigate flood damage. Physical models using artificial mangrove structures have shown that red mangrove-dominated fringe forests can protect built infrastructure by reducing wave height due to increased drag. One way to estimate the contribution of red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) prop …

Using 2d Hec-Ras Modeling With Vertical Feature Extraction To Inform Ecological Design In The Lower Atchafalaya River Basin, Louisiana, Colin Anderson

LSU Master's Theses

A 2D HEC-RAS model was created to demonstrate applications of hydraulic modeling for informing ecological design. This was done by comparing the hydrologic conditions of a baseline year (2010) to that of the environmental flow prescription from Kozak et al. (2016). The inundation results are relevant to hydraulic connectivity and cypress regeneration.

The hydraulic model was created by assimilating numerous data sources, refining the model with vertical feature (VF) extraction, and calibrating/validating the model. Several topo-bathymetric sources were combined to create the digital elevation model (DEM). Most importantly, this included bathymetry of the backswamp. Polylines of significant VFs in the …

Simulation Of Compound Flood Events In Low-Gradient Coastal Watershed, Felix Luis Santiago-Collazo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Low-gradient coastal watersheds are susceptible to flooding caused by various flows such as rainfall, tides, and storm surge. Compound flooding occurs when at least two of these mechanisms happen simultaneously or in close succession. Different inundation models, observed data, and/or a combination of these are coupled through varying techniques involving one-way, loosely, tightly, or fully coupled approaches to assess compound flooding. This study presents a one-dimensional (1-D), fully coupled compound inundation model based on the Shallow Water equations. This model approach simultaneously simulates the free water surface variations in the ocean domain (i.e., tide and storm surge modeling), rainfall-runoff in …

Evaluating Hazus-Mh Flood Model Consequence Assessments Of Urban And Rural Coastal Landscapes Using Adcirc Generated Flood Data From Hurricanes Isaac And Laura, Katherine Faye Jones

LSU Master's Theses

Emergency managers rely on a variety on models and outputs, such as Hazards United States Multi- Hazard (Hazus-MH) and the Coastal Emergency Risk Assessment (CERA) visualization tool, to make decisions in the days leading up to and following hurricane events. This study focuses on using Hurricane Isaac (2012) and Hurricane Laura (2020).ASGS-CERA geoTIFFs, created from generated ADCIRC Prediction System data, in the Hazus-MH Flood Model to test using these two tools together in urban and rural areas. These ASGS-CERA integrated Hazus-MH studies were compared with Hazus-MH studies using the standard Hazus-MH surge methodology. They were tested for accuracy in both …

Quantifying Discharge On The Lower Mississippi River Physical Model, Taylor S. Cagle

LSU Master's Theses

The Lower Mississippi River Physical Model (LMRPM) is a distorted, movable-bed physical model that replicates the hydraulics and bedload (sand) transport of the lower 195 miles of the Mississippi River. One year of flow and sediment transport on the prototype can be modeled in approximately one hour. With the ability to simulate long periods of time on the Lower Mississippi River in such a short time frame, the model can provide unique insight into subjects such as the potential effects from relative sea level rise on the lower river’s hydraulics and sediment transport. Quantifying discharge on the LMRPM is an …

Effects Of Historical Land-Use Change On Surface Runoff And Flooding In The Amite River Basin, Louisiana, Usa Using Coupled 1d/2d Hec-Ras–Hec-Hms Hydrological Modeling, Alexandre G. H. Cowles

LSU Master's Theses

The Amite River Basin is a largely rural watershed spanning parts of four counties in southern Mississippi and seven parishes in southeast Louisiana, with basinwide imperviousness increasing from 0.82% in 1938 to 3.85% in 2016. The Basin has been the subject of significant research interest since catastrophic flooding in 2016 caused 13 deaths and widespread damages. Rapid development in recent decades has led to an expansion of impervious surfaces in Baton Rouge and surrounding areas, encroaching on floodplains and wetlands. At the basin scale, differences in flooding due to impervious cover changes were found to be somewhat limited, particularly along …

Stream Power Analysis Of The Mid-Barataria Conveyance Channel Model, Jack Graham

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana’s coast is disappearing at an alarming rate. Erosion, subsidence, sea level rise, and the devastating impacts from hurricanes have contributed to the loss of thousands of square miles of land that was once a thriving ecosystem. The Louisiana government is taking action to help protect and restore these coastal habitats, which are a home to some two million people and numerous species of animals, birds, and fish. The Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion is a new type of project to help create land in Barataria Basin. Conceptually, the diversion is designed to use the available sediment and stream power provided by …

Non-Newtonian Model Development For Post-Wildfire Flood Risk Management, Ian Eli Floyd

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Wildfire effected regions of the western U.S. frequently produce non-Newtonian floods (or floods that have a non-linear relationship between stress and deformation) in response to moderate to severe precipitation events. This research presents the development, evaluation, and demonstration of a post-wildfire hydrodynamic one-dimensional and two-dimensional diffusive wave and shallow-water numerical modeling approach that can be used to predict post-wildfire downstream runout of debris flows and floodplain inundation conditions. While researchers have developed a variety of Non-Newtonian approaches to simulate debris flows and mudflows, there has been very limited application to post-wildfire flooding. This can make it difficult to understand the …

Operation Procedures Of Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion Model To Reproduce Hydraulics And Sediment Transport, Chase Holston

LSU Master's Theses

The Lower Mississippi River Physical Model (LMRPM) is a distorted, movable bed model that simulates the hydraulics and sediment transport in the lower 195 miles of the Mississippi River. Carved into the model are both existing hydraulic structures, such as the Bonnet Carré Spillway, and proposed structures, such as the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion (MBSD). The MBSD will be the first sediment diversion built as part of Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan, so incorporating the diversion in the LMRPM will be a useful tool to understanding how the diversion can impact the river hydraulics and bedload transport. The objective of this thesis …

A Modelling Study For Smart Pigging Technique For Pipeline Leak Detection, Caitlyn Judith Thiberville

LSU Master's Theses

Although leak incidents continue, a pipeline remains the most reliable mode of transportation within the oil and gas industry. It becomes even more important today because the projection for new pipelines is expected to increase by 1 billion BOE through 2035. In addition, increasing number and length of subsea tiebacks face new challenges in term of data acquisition, monitoring, analysis, and remedial actions. Passive leak-detection methods commonly used in the industry have been successful with some limitations in that they often cannot detect small leaks and seeps. In addition to a thorough review of related topics, this study investigates how …

Historical Changes In Planform Geometry Of The Amite And Comite Rivers And Implications On Flood Routing, Kathleen E. Harris

LSU Master's Theses

The Amite River Basin is a 2,220 square-mile basin spanning from southwest Mississippi through southeast Louisiana, encompassing Baton Rouge and its suburbs. In response to historic flooding in August 2016 and other major flood events in the past several decades, the basin has been the subject of a number of studies to quantify the impacts of changes in land-use and reduction in river length and sinuosity. However, there have yet to be relationships defined between the changes in the historical river planform and the resulting flow, stages, and subsequent flood depths. River lengths and sinuosity were measured from the 1930s …

Development Of Artificial Intelligence Approach To Nowcasting And Forecasting Vibrio Prevalence In Coastal Waters, Peyman Hosseinzadeh Namadi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Vibrio parahaemolyticus (V.p) is an epidemiologically significant pathogen that poses high risks to the human health and shellfish industry, calling for predictive models for management interventions. This study presents an Artificial Intelligence(AI)-based approach to predicting and reducing the risks. The AI-based approach involves the identification of environmental indicators and their optimum variation ranges favoring V.p prevalence, the development of nowcasting and forecasting models for predicting V.p prevalence, and the creation of remote sensing algorithms for mapping concentrations of V.p and its environmental indicators by synergistically combining the Deep Neural Network (DNN) modeling technique, Genetic Programming (GP) method, R …

Hydraulic Effects Of The Lower Mississippi River Batture, David P. May

LSU Master's Theses

The Lower Mississippi River (LMR), since the creation of the Mississippi River and Tributaries (MR&T) project, has been extensively modified to support navigation and flood risk reduction. The components of the MR&T system, implemented to support the above missions, have performed successfully for many decades, but not without contention. Rising stages in recent years have led to the questioning of the hydraulic impact of navigation dikes and river training methodologies. Multiple studies have been performed (Biedenharn, 2000, May 2017, Mayne, 2018, and Simon, 2019) that indicate these river training structures have minimal impact to stage during flood conditions. It has …

The Long-Term Outlook Of The Mississippi-Atchafalaya Bifurcation: A Convergence Of Engineering, Economics, And Deltaic Evolution, Thomas Mitchell Andrus

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The most recent and currently active delta lobe of the Mississippi River (MR) is the Atchafalaya-Wax Lake lobe, which was initiated approximately 400 years ago as a result of MR stream capture by the Atchafalaya River (AR). This capture process accelerated in the early to mid-1900s but further progress was prevented by construction and operation of the Old River Control Structure (ORCS) Complex. Many recent studies indicate that MR system below the ORCS is on a retreating geologic trajectory due to contributing factors such as sea level rise, subsidence, faulting, and declining hydraulic stream power. Diversions along the Lower MR …

Model Development To Assess Groundwater Flooding And Levee Underseepage In New Orleans, Louisiana, Shuo Yang

LSU Master's Theses

Flooding is a major threat to New Orleans due to its geographic location and geologic condition. However, potential groundwater flooding is seldom studied and poorly understood even though groundwater level is expected high in the city. High groundwater level might result in groundwater flooding in low-lying areas. High uplift pore water pressures may cause strong underseepage and risk levee safety. The objective of this study is to assess the impacts of hydrogeology on groundwater flooding and evaluate potential underseepage-induced hazards along levees in New Orleans. In this study, a groundwater flow model development which involves stratigraphy modeling, groundwater flow model …

Effect Of Channelized And Unchannelized Lateral Outflow On Three-Dimensional Flow Structure And Sediment Transport Mechanisms In A River Delta, Mohammad Kifayath Chowdhury

LSU Master's Theses

Spatial and temporal patterns in three-dimensional flow structure have been linked to channel morphology and processes in many environments, including river meander bends, confluences-diffluences, and bedrock canyons. However, there is not yet an understanding of how channelized and gradual, distributed lateral outflows that are often prevalent in deltaic distributary systems influence three-dimensional flow structure and sediment transport mechanisms. This thesis presents an analysis of 3D flow structure data collected from Wax Lake Delta, a naturally developing river-dominated delta in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Three hydrographic surveys were conducted using boat-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) at two sites: an …

Structural Vulnerability Of Coastal Bridges Under Extreme Hurricane Conditions, Arturo Montoya, Adolfo Matamoros, Firat Testik, Reza Nasouri, Adnan Shahriar, Arsalan Majlesi

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18STTSA04. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"This work presents the results of a numerical study evaluating the response of coastal bridges due to hurricane-induced waves. The analyses were conducted using the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) approach, available on the commercial finite element software Abaqus, which allows modeling the interaction between water and the bridge. The work concentrated on (1) establishing an approach for modeling the desired wave characteristics (i.e., wave height, and frequency) within the CEL simulation, (2) conducting simulations using actual bridge dimensions of historically damaged bridges, (3) …

Assessing The Impacts Of Super Storm Flooding In The Transportation Infrastructure – Case Study: San Antonio, Texas, Marcio Giacomoni, Francisco Olivera, Cesar Do Lago

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18HSTSA02. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"Flooding are likely to increase worldwide due to climate change. Large storms, referred here as superstorms, defined as events with return period equal or larger than 100 years, can lead to an increase of property damages and loss of life. The ability to predict and plan for the impacts of superstorms on transportation infrastructure is key to mitigate future damages and losses. This study analyzed 51 combinations of future projections for representative concentration pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios, which were used …

Portable Roadway High Water Detection System For Driver Safety And Infrastructure Assessment, Hatim Sharif, Samer Dessouky

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 18SATSA05. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"The state of Texas, local governments, and community groups are adopting several initiatives to address this problem. The main goal of this project is to develop an approach to enhance prediction and detection of roadway flooding and help efforts to prevent driving into flood roadways. The motivation of this work was initiated by the alarming number of vehicle related flood fatalities in Texas, mostly at low-water crossings. Texas leads the nation in the number of flood fatalities and about 77% of flood …

Assessing The Impacts Of Super Storm Flooding In The Transportation Infrastructure – Case Study: San Antonio, Texas, Marcio Giacomoni, Francisco Olivera, Cesar Do Lago

Publications

Flooding are likely to increase worldwide due to climate change. Large storms, referred here as superstorms, defined as events with return period equal or larger than 100 years, can lead to an increase of property damages and loss of life. The ability to predict and plan for the impacts of superstorms on transportation infrastructure is key to mitigate future damages and losses. This study analyzed 51 combinations of future projections for representative concentration pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios, which were used to calculate future 1st and 3rd quartiles, median, minimum and maximum intensity-duration-frequency curves (IDF). A HEC-HMS and GSSHA …

Structural Vulnerability Of Coastal Bridges Under Extreme Hurricane Conditions, Arturo Montoya, Adolfo Matamoros, Firat Testik, Reza Nasouri, Adnan Shahriar, Arsalan Majlesi

Publications

This work presents the results of a numerical study evaluating the response of coastal bridges due to hurricane-induced waves. The analyses were conducted using the Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) approach, available on the commercial finite element software Abaqus, which allows modeling the interaction between water and the bridge. The work concentrated on (1) establishing an approach for modeling the desired wave characteristics (i.e., wave height, and frequency) within the CEL simulation, (2) conducting simulations using actual bridge dimensions of historically damaged bridges, (3) analyzing a range of foundation flexibilities to determine its effect on the uplift and shear forces acting on …

Identification And Reduction Of Uncertainties In Watershed-Scale Flow And Water Quality Modeling, Maryam Roostaee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study identified important uncertainties affecting watershed-scale flow and water quality simulations and recommended modeling options for reducing the uncertainties by means of the Hydrological Simulation Program-FORTRAN (HSPF) model. Specifically, parameter-induced uncertainties in HSPF model were estimated along with uncertainties associated with DEM resolutions and sources. National Elevation Dataset (NED) DEMs with original and resampled resolutions of 3.5, 10, 30 and 100m were utilized for manual and automatic delineation of three watersheds with different gradients in HSPF model to identify the effects of DEM resolution, DEM resampling, delineation method and watershed gradient on the simulation of streamflow, nitrate (NO_{3 …}