G.1 Coastal Engineering

G.2 Drought and Floods Extremes Events and Climate change

G.3 Eco Hydraulics 

G.4 Fluid Mechanics

G.5 Hydro-power Engineering

G.6 Numerical models in Hydraulics and Fluid Mechanics

G.7 Rivers and Sediment transport

G.8 Water Resources Engineering

CE-Costal Engineering

CE.1 How Waves Shape the Coasts

This session aims at providing the possibility to discuss the role of wind waves and related wave-generated coastal circulation in the shaping mechanisms of natural or protected coasts. Studies about high or low, hard or soft coasts are invited. Questions like: "Are high coasts shaped by wind-waves?", "How waves lead to sandy beach accretion or retreat", "How sandy bars moves?", although apparently simple, do not still have an ultimate scientific answer. Considering the complex problems which are becoming more and more important in the light of climate changes (unsteadiness of forcing conditions, increased frequency of extremes, impacts on coastal erosion), the understanding of littoral dynamics is crucial. Researches on the physics of this system that focused on the micro-scale up to the macro-scale, on the theoretical, experimental or numerical modelling and field monitoring, are welcomed.

Conveners: L. Cappietti; R.E. Musumeci; G. Gaeta

CE.2 Port structures and maritime transportation

Harbour planning and maritime transportation; Inland navigation and its structures; offsore marine structures; Hydraulics Analysis of all port structures; Innovation designe of all port structures; Integrate sustainable costal development.

Conveners: A. Elsayed

HS.4 Recent Advances in Marine Renewable Energy

Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) has the potential to become a key contributor to global energy needs, not only because of the issues and problems often related to the use of fossil fuels (e.g., environmental pollution, climate change, security in energy supply, price volatility in the international markets, and near-future depletion of resources), but also because of the vast and yet almost untapped energy resources available in the oceans and the long-lasting availability of those resources. The thematic session is focused on the presentation of both research and demonstration projects regarding the development of technologies to harness MRE, namely the ones concerning to wave, tidal and wind energy. Research on hybrid-platforms is also welcomed. Presentations are encouraged to cover the following sub-topics:resource characterization; hydrodynamic modelling; device development and testing; power take-off systems and control; station keeping, moorings and foundations; grid integration; operations and maintenance; environmental impact assessment; and the economic, social, legal and political aspects of MRE.

Conveners: F. Taveira-Pinto; P. Rosa-Santos; T. Fazeres-Ferradosa.

FH-Floods and Hazards

FH.1 Dike breach inducing floods: processes and numerical modelling

Failure of dikes (i.e. levees and dam embankments) often leads to devastating floods that cause loss of life and damages to public infrastructure. Accurate predictions of the breach geometry and outflow hydrograph are important to estimate the inundation extent, to plan emergency operations and to design mitigating measures. Dikes can be breached by different mechanisms, such as overtopping and piping. Despite some progress made recently (particularly for dam embankment breaching), more research efforts are required to grasp the effects of various factors on the breach mechanisms. These factors include flow conditions in the main channel, dike geometry, dike material, tailwater height, channel/floodplain bed mobility, as well as polder area and topography. The existing knowledge on dike breaches originates mainly from small-scale laboratory experiments, statistical analyses of historical data and from numerical modelling (i.e. simplified physically-based models or 1-D, 2-D river morphodynamic numerical models). This session encourages submissions of work related to understanding dike breaching processes. We welcome submissions that include laboratory, numerical, and field studies.

Conveners: Ismail Rifai, Benjamin Dewals; Kamal El Kadi Abderrezzak

HM.1 Filling the gaps between meteorological forecasting and prevention of weather related natural hazards: recent advances, open questions and challenges

Recent advances from the investigation of physical mechanisms governing severe weather events and related hazards, and technological applications nowadays available, enable us to monitor these events in real time with a very wide coverage and high resolution, and analyse their connections. Also, recent advances in numerical modelling allowed to refine high performance tools for simulation of the chains of factors producing such events. Yet the implementation of the above resources into integrated operational prediction procedures requires filling gaps both in the understanding of the multiple connections, and in the interactions between observational systems and forecasting tools. The session will stimulate presentation of state-of-the-art results and case studies, and interdisciplinary discussion on future steps for research and technology to face challenges in this field.

Conveners: D. Zardi

HM.2 Hydro-meteorological extremes in small mountain catchments: modelling, prediction and uncertainty

Hydrological extremes in small mountain catchments are inherently difficult to forecast, and at the same time critical for hazard assessment. These phenomena fall well in the category usually denoted as flash-floods, because the response time, and therefore the critical rainfall duration for these basins is short, i.e. usually below one hour. Typically, they are the result of intense rainfall over a relatively small area or for moderate to intense rainfall over highly saturated or impervious land surfaces, and generally occurring within minutes to several hours of the rainfall event. This session is directed to hydro-meteorologists who want to discuss the typology of thunderstorm causing such phenomena, experimental and theoretical, physical and statistical, as well as hydrologists who investigate the spatial and temporal characteristics flash floods. The session also invites experts interested to water-sediment interactions, since flash floods often involve large sediment transport and can cause debris flows and landslides. Particular focus will be given to the assessment of the various uncertainties involved in the modelling chain to obtain predictions, at both meteorological and climatological scales.

Conveners: G. Di Baldassarre; R.Rigon

FH.2 New hydraulic engineering contributions to flood resilience and mitigation

Flood Risk Management (FRM) is a topical issue as urbanization is growing at an unprecedented pace and the hydrological effects of climate change become increasingly visible. As extreme rainfall events become more frequent and more intense, new avenues are developing rapidly for FRM, including concepts which promote decentralized management of storm water, non-structural or unconventional mitigation measures like those combining grey, blue and green solutions, such as the sponge city model. Integrated frameworks are needed for the design and evaluation of sustainable FRM strategies; but deficiencies remain in the current modelling concepts and tools. These deficiencies relate to model validation practice mainly due to lack of reliable observations, to insufficient integrative analysis, to socio-economic factors and decision making processes being overlooked. This session aims at providing better insights into these topics of critical importance to inform reliable FRM. We welcome contributions giving multiple perspectives on the various aspects of FRM, including (but not limited to): prevention, protection, preparedness, emergency response, flood recovery, lessons learned from case studies, resilience, early-warning systems, decision-support tools, model validation.

Conveners: B. Dewals; D. Molinari; F. Ballio; S.Haun

FM-Fluid Mechanics

FM.1 Buoyancy-driven flows

The session will accept new contributions from researchers working on any aspect of natural and anthropogenically-derived flows that involve buoyancy as a main driving force. This invitation will cover all environmental and geophysical flow problems within riverine, estuarine and maritime systems, in which density differences are initiated by variations in salinity, temperature and/or suspended particulate loads. Some example areas include: gravity or turbidity currents; turbulent buoyant jets and plumes; buoyancy-driven exchange flows; and internal waves. These contributions can be either on fundamental or applied research topics in these or related areas, and can present findings from experimental, analytical, computational or field studies.

Conveners: A. J S Cuthbertson ; C. Adduce ; J. Laanearu; D. Malcangio

FM.2 Heat and mass transport under complex natural conditions

This thematic session will cover different aspects of heat and mass transport in natural conditions, bridging fundamental research to practical engineering challenges in water courses. In natural conditions, factors such as complicated channel geometry or the presence of vegetation control the flow hydrodynamics and markedly influence the dispersion and spreading of heat and dissolved and suspended substances. Accordingly, the correct estimation of the fundamental coefficients or terms, such as e.g. dispersion coefficients and heat exchange terms, is crucial for the reliable prediction of the transport and fate of the different substances. Such predictions are particularly important for designing effective management strategies to control the transport of nutrients, harmful substances, thermal pollution and suspended sediment in real channels. The session aims to present and discuss all the afore-mentioned aspects, we also welcome other problems related to the topic. The insights presented in the session are expected to support sustainable management of rivers and streams.

Conveners: M.B. Kalinowska; K. Västilä

FM.3 Hydraulic engineering and biological fluids: a fast expanding research area

Hydraulic research in the field of biological flows has shown a rapid growth in the last decade. Further increase has to be expected thanks to the recognized capability of technical skills to give reliable answer to clinical and industrial needs. The field of application is remarkably extended, going from issues concerning pathological conditions in biofluids flows to the design and assessment of biomedical tools and devices. The session is intended to promote the visibility of valuable reserches in the area, with the aim of highilighting advanced methodological approaches integrating multidisciplinary perspectives.

Conveners: E. Toro; F. M. Susin

ST.5 New insights on sediment transport and on gravity driven granular flows

The knowledge of sediment transports phenomena in rivers was greatly improved during the last years thanks to new optical measuring methods and new powerful software and calculus devices. The aim of the section is to take stock of knowledge about the solid transport models with regard both to ordinary sediment transport and to the hyper-concentrated flows; on the theoretical analysis of new experimental data and on the results of the particles simulation methods. The section will also address the problem of fluid-sediments interaction, but also the interaction among the sediments in water and air: immersed and dry granular flows driven by gravity and with respect to the rheology of the frictional and collisional regimes.

Conveners: A. Armanini

FM.4 Turbulence and Interactions in River Hydraulics

The Session will focus on mixing properties in river reaches including transport of pollutants and suspended sediments, variation of the bedform in meanders and interactions at grain scale. Numerical (preferably DNS/LES/DES) as well as experimental contributions aimed at exploiting physical features of turbulence in river flows are encouraged. Also, the session will be home for fundamental studies at grain scale, aimed at exploiting the physics associated to the effect of turbulence fluctuations on uplifting and resuspension of sediments.

Conveners: V. Armenio; V. Nikora; G. Costantinescu

HS-Hydraulics Structures and Energy

FH. 1 Dike breach inducing floods: processes and numerical modelling

Failure of dikes (i.e. levees and dam embankments) often leads to devastating floods that cause loss of life and damages to public infrastructure. Accurate predictions of the breach geometry and outflow hydrograph are important to estimate the inundation extent, to plan emergency operations and to design mitigating measures. Dikes can be breached by different mechanisms, such as overtopping and piping. Despite some progress made recently (particularly for dam embankment breaching), more research efforts are required to grasp the effects of various factors on the breach mechanisms. These factors include flow conditions in the main channel, dike geometry, dike material, tailwater height, channel/floodplain bed mobility, as well as polder area and topography. The existing knowledge on dike breaches originates mainly from small-scale laboratory experiments, statistical analyses of historical data and from numerical modelling (i.e. simplified physically-based models or 1-D, 2-D river morphodynamic numerical models). This session encourages submissions of work related to understanding dike breaching processes. We welcome submissions that include laboratory, numerical, and field studies.

Conveners: Ismail Rifai, Benjamin Dewals; Kamal El Kadi Abderrezzak

HS.1 Emerging challenges and opportunities in hydropower production

Hydropower is a well consolidated technology who played a crucial role in early stage of industrialization and it can be still an important driver for economic development. The need of refurbishment of aged plants, together with new issues induced by climate change, the increased sensitivity to environmental issues and the emergence of new renewable resources for energy production, raises new challenges in hydropower production and related hydro-environment engineering issues. What are the relationships between hydropower and climate change? How do we incorporate sustainability into design and maintenance practice? Which are the drawbacks when hydropower integrate with other renewables? Which are innovative solutions for modern hydropower systems? These are some of the questions related relating to the present and future of hydropower, which unavoidably have implications on hydro-environment sciences and engineering. These topics will debated in the session by scientists and hydropower operators

Conveners: M. Righetti; Kamal el-Kadi Abderrezzak

HS.2 Hydraulics of agricultural waterways (irrigation and drainage networks)

Agricultural open-channel networks play a key role in land and water management issues. In a context of increasing water demand, especially for agriculture, the environmental performance of the irrigation canals is expected to improve. Agricultural drainage ditches also largely contribute to basin drainage and therefore to flood management. All these objects affect the water cycle as well as solute and solid transfers, with consequences on ecosystems that must be addressed. 'While their hydraulic design usually relies on generic concepts, specific issues are raised by their physical characteristics, the need of hydraulic control structures, their operation and maintenance due to vegetation or sediment deposition. 'In the past, many advances in hydraulics were drawn by practical engineering questions for the design of agricultural open-channel networks (e.g., roughness estimation, regime theory, sediment transport prediction…). These advances have largely found applications to river hydraulics. Conversely, recent advances in river engineering should find applications to agricultural channels, which are faced to new challenges: adaptation to on-demand distribution, accurate flow monitoring, ecosystem services, impact on water quality… 'The objective of the session is to share knowledge about these hydraulic networks, focusing on their specificities compared to river streams.

Conveners: G. Belaud

HS.3 Project Dam-Bridge Strait of Gibraltar

Ref: Adaptation of the Mediterranean sea to the sea level rise in the Strait of Gibraltar. https://youtu.be/9bbFyKE2DWw We have completed the Preliminary Design called "Dam Bridge Strait of Gibraltar linking Europe and Africa and in turn regulate the waters of the Mediterranean" http://goo.gl/hffl4A Dam Bridge adapting to climate change, is designed to protect the Mediterranean from the impending rising water by melting polar ice. https://youtu.be/iKxuzrF2BWQ More than 25 Mediterranean countries, over 500 million people who can benefit at the same time and not do individually as Venice (See MOSE Project); in addition, more than 15,000 islands and thousands of Km. of coastline which can be saved from flooding. We have areas in grave danger, as in Spain: La Manga, Barcelona; Egypt: The Nile Delta; in France: the Rhône delta; Malta; etc. etc. THE PROBLEM: https://youtu.be/4vyn9njKt6w

Conveners: J. Valle Anguita

HS.4 Recent Advances in Marine Renewable Energy

Marine Renewable Energy (MRE) has the potential to become a key contributor to global energy needs, not only because of the issues and problems often related to the use of fossil fuels (e.g., environmental pollution, climate change, security in energy supply, price volatility in the international markets, and near-future depletion of resources), but also because of the vast and yet almost untapped energy resources available in the oceans and the long-lasting availability of those resources. The thematic session is focused on the presentation of both research and demonstration projects regarding the development of technologies to harness MRE, namely the ones concerning to wave, tidal and wind energy. Research on hybrid-platforms is also welcomed. Presentations are encouraged to cover the following sub-topics:resource characterization; hydrodynamic modelling; device development and testing; power take-off systems and control; station keeping, moorings and foundations; grid integration; operations and maintenance; environmental impact assessment; and the economic, social, legal and political aspects of MRE.

Conveners: F. Taveira-Pinto; P. Rosa-Santos; T. Fazeres-Ferradosa.

HS.5 Sediment management at run-of-river hydropower plants

In last decades the increase sensibility on environmental issues has raised the interest of operator companies, authorities and scientific community on the effects that run-of-river hydropower plants have on sediment transport regime, morphological and ecological equilibrium of rivers. In order to maintain the energy renewable production, but reducing the environmental impacts, it is recommendable to take advantage on available scientific instruments, but also on practical and technical know-how and long-standing experience of the managing of hydropower plants. On the other hand, innovative tools, such as more efficient numerical models, investigations, know-how on climate change, etc., are the basis for a more efficient and “environmental friendly” RoR HPPs management. The session is going to focus on sediment management efficiency of RoR HPPs, in short and long term perspectives, on the efficiency of cleaning of transversal weirs and desanders or other hydraulic structures. Especially, the session is an attempt to join the points of view of scientific community, operator companies, technicians, and discuss about optimization of sediment releasing or management.

Conveners: V. Cavedon; M. Righetti

HS.6 Hydraulic and structural design of structures submitted to dynamic impact

This session addresses the dual problem of designing solid transport (sediment and large wood) trapping facilities that need functional and structural criteria improvement. From the functional point of view, recent works details the suitable shapes enabling the structure to fully trap, partially trap or sort large woods or only boulders. There is however not yet a consensus on the way to select a given function or on the definition the detailed design criteria for each shape. From the structural point of view, it remains unclear how to design structures to cope with the dynamic impact of water or mixtures of water and sediments.

Urbanized mountains areas are potentially affected by gravitational flows phenomena: exhaustive and proper functional and structural design criteria of protection structures are necessary to preserve these areas. Nowadays, exhaustive guidelines are still lacking. There are many types of existing structures: the most diffused are the vertical concrete walls, check dams or open check dams but also permeable devices, like nets, are increasing in number. Validating design criteria for existing and innovative structures is a fundamental step, in order to have common and effective guideline regarding this aspect. Furthermore, the choice of the types of structure employed and their right location along the rivers need a deeper understanding of their effects on sediment transport processes, enabling to prevent unwanted secondary effect (e.g., downstream incision), or to define a correct hazard mapping taking into account protection measures.  

This session aims at opening different issues regarding the numerical modelling, the experimental investigation, field feedbacks and rational approaches to the problem of trapping facilities design including both the shape design and the dynamic impact against different types of structures.

The session is open to any contribution on this topic, analyzing different devices against massive large wood and bedload transport, debris floods, debris flows and their management using trapping structures.

Conveners: G. Piton; G. Rossi

HS.7 Physical and numerical models for urban hydraulic systems

This session will give an overview of latest research studies conducted by the Scientific (and Professional) Community to examine the hydraulic behaviour of urban hydraulic infrastructures. Experimental investigations, based on physical and/or numerical modelling activities of urban hydraulic systems are of main concern. Field-case studies aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of hydraulic structures in operation may enhance the relevance of the session.

Convener: C. Gisonni; Rita Carvalho

ST.7 Water reservoir operation and sedimentation

Effective and safe water reservoir operation:

• optimization and stochastic methods for determining the regimes of reservoir operation
• assessment of changes in river runoff under water reservoir operation

Designing and operation of dam hydraulic structures:

• assessment of hydraulic characteristics for culverts and spillways of dams
• problems of fish-passing structures
• forecasts and calculations of ice phenomena for culverts and spillways of dams
   

The impact of reservoirs on the climate of the region:

• evaluation of the regional characteristics of evaporation from the water surface, depending on the regimes of reservoir operation
• assessment of changes in climatic characteristics in coastal areas of reservoirs

Silting of water reservoirs of water reservoirs:

• simulation of inflow sediments in the reservoir
• influence of water level fluctuations on reservoir deformation
• simulation of water reservoir operation for reduce its silting

The effect of reservoir operation on the qualitative characteristics of water masses:

• evaluation of hydro-chemical characteristics of the water masses under various regimes of water reservoir operation
• evaluation of hydro-biological characteristics of water masses under various regimes of water reservoir operation

Conveners: V. Ilinich; C. Gisonni

HM-Hydrology and Meterology

SM.1 Airborne LiDAR Bathymetry: new approaches and their applications

Full geometrical and realistic bathymetric information are required for describing complex morphological structures and processes in river systems. The technology of airborne LiDAR bathymetry scanning, an innovative remote sensing method for measuring the ´underwater topography´ of shallow coastal waters, lakes and rivers, allows a high resolution of complex morphological structures. The obtained topo-bathymetric information received from aerial survey offers great potential for describing and understanding hydraulic, morphodynamic and ecological processes and is being already used for long-stretching river, lake and shoreline monitoring needs. Anyhow, dealing with the resulting big data turned out being a significant challenge. Researchers and companies dedicated in sustaining and accelerating the development of innovative approaches and their application are invited to share their knowledge and to inspire the IAHR scientific community. In this special session Airborne Laser Bathymetry surveying, big data processing, scientific evaluation and making this huge amount of data simply usable for all parties will be discussed.

Conveners: M. Aufleger, R. Klar, K. Baumgartner

HM.1 Filling the gaps between meteorological forecasting and prevention of weather related natural hazards: recent advances, open questions and challenges

Recent advances from the investigation of physical mechanisms governing severe weather events and related hazards, and technological applications nowadays available, enable us to monitor these events in real time with a very wide coverage and high resolution, and analyse their connections. Also, recent advances in numerical modelling allowed to refine high performance tools for simulation of the chains of factors producing such events. Yet the implementation of the above resources into integrated operational prediction procedures requires filling gaps both in the understanding of the multiple connections, and in the interactions between observational systems and forecasting tools. The session will stimulate presentation of state-of-the-art results and case studies, and interdisciplinary discussion on future steps for research and technology to face challenges in this field.

Conveners: D. Zardi

HM.2 Hydro-meteorological extremes in small mountain catchments: modelling, prediction and uncertainty

Hydrological extremes in small mountain catchments are inherently difficult to forecast, and at the same time critical for hazard assessment. These phenomena fall well in the category usually denoted as flash-floods, because the response time, and therefore the critical rainfall duration for these basins is short, i.e. usually below one hour. Typically, they are the result of intense rainfall over a relatively small area or for moderate to intense rainfall over highly saturated or impervious land surfaces, and generally occurring within minutes to several hours of the rainfall event. This session is directed to hydro-meteorologists who want to discuss the typology of thunderstorm causing such phenomena, experimental and theoretical, physical and statistical, as well as hydrologists who investigate the spatial and temporal characteristics flash floods. The session also invites experts interested to water-sediment interactions, since flash floods often involve large sediment transport and can cause debris flows and landslides. Particular focus will be given to the assessment of the various uncertainties involved in the modelling chain to obtain predictions, at both meteorological and climatological scales.

Conveners: G. Di Baldassarre; R.Rigon

HM.3 Machine learning applied to hydraulic and hydrological modelling

The computational power available nowadays allow us to tackle simulation challenges in hydraulic and hydrological modelling at different scales that were impossible a few decades ago. But even with in the current situation, the time needed for these simulations is inadequate for many scientific and engineering applications, such as decision support systems, flood warning systems, design/optimisation of a hydraulic structures, calibration of model parameters, uncertainty quantification, and real-time model-based control. To address this issue, the development of fast surrogate models to accelerate simulators seems to be promising strategy: it does not require a huge investment in new hardware and software, and the same tool can be used to solve very different problems. The field of Machine Learning offers a huge library of methods to build surrogate models, many of which have been successfully used in hydraulic and hydrological modelling. In this session, we would like invite papers which incorporate machine learning techniques to accelerate simulators of all types of water resources systems.

Conveners: V. Bellos; J. P. Carbajal

SM.5 Multidisciplinary approaches in the service of water resources: what we can steal from other disciplines to improve water management

What is the expertise required to write a successful research project? And what are the skills needed to successfully manage it? How can we deal with an international team? And with a virtual team? Have we identified all the stakeholders involved and are we confident to interact with them? The aim of this session is to figure out those aspects of the research activity that are not solved by the Scientific Knowledge and that can find new positive impulses thanks to the contamination with other disciplines. Project Management, Soft skills and Business Analysis could give interesting perspectives on problem solving in different scientific fields. This session asks for contributions by professional figures who experience the importance of other disciplines approaches and/or suggest new keys and points of view on water resources project management.

Conveners: E.Celegon

HM.4 Water temperature in a changing climate: processes, implications, and managing strategies

Water temperature is a key control of a wide range of physical, chemical, and biological processes in freshwater systems. Being able to reliably predict its response to changing environmental conditions is required to support effective management strategies and to quantify the implications for water quality and aquatic ecosystems. This session aims at defining the present knowledge of hydro-thermal processes in freshwater systems and at gathering examples of best practices to control water temperature changes in rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Relevant contributions include but are not limited to: 

• innovative measurement techniques, including advances in remote sensing
• modelling of thermal processes in freshwater systems, including efforts towards coupling physics, chemistry, and biology 
• methods and tools to detect and analyse past, ongoing, and future long-term trends
• best practices and management strategies to mitigate thermal pollution caused by hydropower plants
• use of lakes and reservoirs for domestic and/or industrial cooling/heating purposes, and possible effects on thermal stratification 
• management and optimization of drinking water withdrawals from lakes and reservoirs

Conveners: S. Piccolroaz ; M. Toffolon

NM-Numerical Methods

SM.2 Application of fuzzy logic to river basin management

Confrontation with problems concerning uncertainty in hydrology, hydraulics, groundwater hydraulics, soil erosion, sediment transport – Ecological evaluation of river basins by means of fuzzy logic – Decision making in river basin management problems (e.g. water allocation, river restoration etc.) with uncertainty, oriented to a multicriteria approach – Fuzzy risk analysis and assessment of the vulnerability under natural hazards.

Conveners: V. Hrissanthou; Mike Spiliotis

HM.3 Machine learning applied to hydraulic and hydrological modelling

The computational power available nowadays allow us to tackle simulation challenges in hydraulic and hydrological modelling at different scales that were impossible a few decades ago. But even with in the current situation, the time needed for these simulations is inadequate for many scientific and engineering applications, such as decision support systems, flood warning systems, design/optimisation of a hydraulic structures, calibration of model parameters, uncertainty quantification, and real-time model-based control. To address this issue, the development of fast surrogate models to accelerate simulators seems to be promising strategy: it does not require a huge investment in new hardware and software, and the same tool can be used to solve very different problems. The field of Machine Learning offers a huge library of methods to build surrogate models, many of which have been successfully used in hydraulic and hydrological modelling. In this session, we would like invite papers which incorporate machine learning techniques to accelerate simulators of all types of water resources systems.

Conveners: V. Bellos; J. P. Carbajal

NM.1 Alternative numerical methods for free-surface flows

The mini-symposium aims to promote communication between researchers working on the development and application of numerical methods for free-surface flows. Papers covering recent developments in mathematical theory, numerical implementations as well as novel or challenging applications would be welcome. Techniques of interest include, but are not limited to: Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), Moving particle semi-implicit (MPS), Dissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD), Lattice Boltzmann methods (LBM), Molecular Dynamics (MD), Vortex methods (VMs), Diffuse element method, Discrete element method (DEM), Element-free Galerkin method (EFGM), Reproducing kernel particle method (RKPM), hp-clouds, Natural element method (NEM), Material point method (MPM), Meshless local Petrov Galerkin (MLPG), Generalized finite difference method (GFDM), Particle-in-cell (PIC), Moving particle finite element method (MPFEM), Finite cloud method (FCM), Boundary node method (BNM), Boundary cloud method (BCM), Method of finite spheres (MFS), Radial Basis Functions (RBF).

Conveners: D. Violeau; G. Viccione; M.Dumbser

NM.2 New trends data collection and analysis for environmental and industrial applications

Many hydraulic studies and applications require experimental data to be collected with different levels of accuracy, resolution and precision. “Experimentation” is broad container including many different items like instrument development, procedures for laboratory and field data collection, routines for data analysis. Together with traditional and advanced instruments, a new generation of portable, low-cost devices opens avenues for continuous measurements to be quickly and reliably taken in a variety of conditions. The proposed session, that is organized by the IAHR Committee on Experimental Methods and Instrumentation (EMI), aims at bringing together researchers active in development and use of experimental tools for all hydraulic fields and measurable quantities.

Conveners: A. Radice

ST-Sediment Transport and River Flows

ST.1 Driftwood Dynamics in Fluvial Systems

The transport of large woody debris in fluvial systems is particularly problematic under unsteady torrential conditions and high-magnitude flood events. The potential for jams on susceptible sections and the occlusion of structures along the water line greatly increase the risk associated with such events. Understanding the physical principles behind the recruiting, transport and deposition processes that govern wood dynamics is thus a major challenge in river engineering. Field works provide fundamental observations to describe wood budgeting in streams and rivers. Laboratory experiments are becoming an increasingly popular tool to get insight into scaling laws and dynamics of these complex natural systems. Furthermore, the rapid increase in computational power has opened the possibility to create numerical models which derive from first principle physical concepts. Our session combines contributions that seek a deeper understanding of driftwood processes in watercourses to advance preventive and control engineering measures. Interdisciplinary work ranging from field works, experimental studies to numerical work under resolved or unresolved models is encouraged.

Conveners: S. Sibilla, S. Meninno, R. Canelas

ST.2 Impacts on river processes: the added value of eco hydraulics and geomorphology

River systems have been impacted by human activities for centuries. The role of ecosystem services they provide has recently been recognized and environmental policies now include programs of measures to restore fundamental processes.
Hydrological and morphological processes (i.e. hydromorphology) play a fundamental role in sustaining the ecosystems. Understanding hydromorphological processes at different spatial and temporal scales is necessary to diagnose river status and design efficient mitigation measures. However, the increased need for further hydropower development and new operational modes to support integration of other renewables creates challenges.
Many approaches to assess flow alterations, changes in structure, function and processes in the river have been developed to assess impacts from hydropower and other pressures. However, they are mostly focusing only on specific aspects of river processes, and there is a lack of holistic views. Interdisciplinary collaboration, emerging techniques and progress in hydrodynamic and ecohydraulic modeling are the main drivers to develop better and more comprehensive methods to assess impacts and develop mitigation measures.

Conveners: M. Bussettini; A. Harby

SM.4 Measures to prepare our rivers for the next century

In many deltas around the world lowland rivers are intensively managed to meet objectives like safety, navigation, hydropower and water supply. With the increasing pressure of growing population and climate change it will become even more challenging to reach or maintain these objectives. In the meantime there is a growing awareness that rivers are natural systems and that, rather than further regulation works, the dynamic natural processes should be better utilized (or restored) to reach the multifunctional objectives. Currently, many integrated river management projects are initiated all over the world, in large rivers as well as streams. These projects include innovative measures executed never before on this scale and include for example longitudinal training dams, side channels, removal of bank protection, remeandering of streams, dredging/nourishment and floodplain rehabilitation. In this session we focus on the physical, biological and societal effects of these innovative measures that have to prepare our rivers for future generations. Submissions could focus on evaluation of results from implemented measures or exploration studies of measures in the design phase. 

Conveners: D. CM Augustijn

ST.3 Mixing and transport processes in vegetated rivers

The presence of vegetation in rivers exerts an important role on environmental processes. Although vegetation could provide stabilization for riverbanks and shorelines, it can also alter concentration of oxygen, carbon and transport of nutrients. In fact, the presence of vegetation in a channel obstructs flow and creates regions of shear at several scales which affect the turbulent structure and transport. Understanding fundamental hydrodynamic characteristics, related turbulent diffusion and mixing properties in the vegetated open-channel flows is important with respect to environmental processes, such as storage of nutrients and chemical tracers, sediment transport and mixing of transported quantities. In this session outstanding work and recent findings on the aforementioned features are welcome. Contributions focusing on the role of vegetation roots in transport processes are also encouraged.

Conveners: D. Termini

ST.4 Monitoring, modelling, and assessment tools for ecological river restoration

The prolonged and widespread impacts of human activity on river corridors has determined the degradation of many river ecosystems. In the last two decades, the concern over the ecological status of rivers has greatly increased, thus stimulating new policies oriented to river restoration and several tangible restoration efforts in many countries. However, in order to plan, design and implement more effective and more extensive ecological restoration schemes, our capacity to understand river processes and to assess, and possibly predict, the effects of restoration measures, needs to be improved. Fundamental questions are: what constitutes a successful river restoration action? Haw to correctly design the restoration strategy? Haw to quantify the results of restoration? Specific topics of interest include, but are not limited to: evaluation and restoration of longitudinal continuity of sediment transport, evaluation of the impact of hydrological alteration (including hydropeaking) on aquatic communities, remote sensing techniques for the hydromorphological monitoring of rivers; methods to predict river evolutionary trajectories, approaches to support the design of river restoration measures developing synergies with risk mitigation strategies.

Conveners: M. Papa; A. Goltara

ST.5 New insights on sediment transport and on gravity driven granular flows

The knowledge of sediment transports phenomena in rivers was greatly improved during the last years thanks to new optical measuring methods and new powerful software and calculus devices. The aim of the section is to take stock of knowledge about the solid transport models with regard both to ordinary sediment transport and to the hyper-concentrated flows; on the theoretical analysis of new experimental data and on the results of the particles simulation methods. The section will also address the problem of fluid-sediments interaction, but also the interaction among the sediments in water and air: immersed and dry granular flows driven by gravity and with respect to the rheology of the frictional and collisional regimes.

Conveners: A. Armanini

HS.5 Sediment management at run-of-river hydropower plants

In last decades the increase sensibility on environmental issues has raised the interest of operator companies, authorities and scientific community on the effects that run-of-river hydropower plants have on sediment transport regime, morphological and ecological equilibrium of rivers. In order to maintain the energy renewable production, but reducing the environmental impacts, it is recommendable to take advantage on available scientific instruments, but also on practical and technical know-how and long-standing experience of the managing of hydropower plants. On the other hand, innovative tools, such as more efficient numerical models, investigations, know-how on climate change, etc., are the basis for a more efficient and “environmental friendly” RoR HPPs management. The session is going to focus on sediment management efficiency of RoR HPPs, in short and long term perspectives, on the efficiency of cleaning of transversal weirs and desanders or other hydraulic structures. Especially, the session is an attempt to join the points of view of scientific community, operator companies, technicians, and discuss about optimization of sediment releasing or management.

Conveners: V. Cavedon; M. Righetti

ST.6 The role of fine sediments on river morphodynamics and habitats

Fine sediment inputs in rivers can be addressed to as natural (e.g.: volcanic eruption, mud flows, soil erosion) quasi-natural (e.g.: land degradation, fires) or human-induced (e.g.: flushing and sluicing operations in dams, dam removal, industrial waste). Some consequences of fine sediment supply to downstream river reaches are: (1) changes of sediment composition; (2) fauna asphyxiation; (3) bar stabilization; (4) river planform changes; (5) floodplain sedimentation. These consequences may have undesired effects on riverine habitats, river morphology, groundwater, hydraulic structures and infrastructures, as well as navigation. 'Stimulating the discussion on the topic we welcome theoretical, modelling, experimental and applied studies dealing with the short and long terms effects and impacts of fine sediments in river channels and floodplains, including wetlands.

Conveners: F. Bregoli; A. Crosato; Bas van Maren

FM.4 Turbulence and Interactions in River Hydraulics

The Session will focus on mixing properties in river reaches including transport of pollutants and suspended sediments, variation of the bedform in meanders and interactions at grain scale. Numerical (preferably DNS/LES/DES) as well as experimental contributions aimed at exploiting physical features of turbulence in river flows are encouraged. Also, the session will be home for fundamental studies at grain scale, aimed at exploiting the physics associated to the effect of turbulence fluctuations on uplifting and resuspension of sediments.

Conveners: V. Armenio; V. Nikora; G. Costantinescu

ST.7 Water reservoir operation and sedimentation

Effective and safe water reservoir operation:

• optimization and stochastic methods for determining the regimes of reservoir operation
• assessment of changes in river runoff under water reservoir operation

Designing and operation of dam hydraulic structures:

• assessment of hydraulic characteristics for culverts and spillways of dams
• problems of fish-passing structures
• forecasts and calculations of ice phenomena for culverts and spillways of dams
   

The impact of reservoirs on the climate of the region:

• evaluation of the regional characteristics of evaporation from the water surface, depending on the regimes of reservoir operation
• assessment of changes in climatic characteristics in coastal areas of reservoirs

Silting of water reservoirs of water reservoirs:

• simulation of inflow sediments in the reservoir
• influence of water level fluctuations on reservoir deformation
• simulation of water reservoir operation for reduce its silting

The effect of reservoir operation on the qualitative characteristics of water masses:

• evaluation of hydro-chemical characteristics of the water masses under various regimes of water reservoir operation
• evaluation of hydro-biological characteristics of water masses under various regimes of water reservoir operation

Conveners: V. Ilinich; C. Gisonni

SM-Survay and Managements

SM.1 Airborne LiDAR Bathymetry: new approaches and their application

Full geometrical and realistic bathymetric information are required for describing complex morphological structures and processes in river systems. The technology of airborne LiDAR bathymetry scanning, an innovative remote sensing method for measuring the ´underwater topography´ of shallow coastal waters, lakes and rivers, allows a high resolution of complex morphological structures. The obtained topo-bathymetric information received from aerial survey offers great potential for describing and understanding hydraulic, morphodynamic and ecological processes and is being already used for long-stretching river, lake and shoreline monitoring needs. Anyhow, dealing with the resulting big data turned out being a significant challenge. Researchers and companies dedicated in sustaining and accelerating the development of innovative approaches and their application are invited to share their knowledge and to inspire the IAHR scientific community. In this special session Airborne Laser Bathymetry surveying, big data processing, scientific evaluation and making this huge amount of data simply usable for all parties will be discussed.

Conveners: M. Aufleger, R. Klar, K. Baumgartner

SM.2 Application of fuzzy logic to river basin management

Confrontation with problems concerning uncertainty in hydrology, hydraulics, groundwater hydraulics, soil erosion, sediment transport – Ecological evaluation of river basins by means of fuzzy logic – Decision making in river basin management problems (e.g. water allocation, river restoration etc.) with uncertainty, oriented to a multicriteria approach – Fuzzy risk analysis and assessment of the vulnerability under natural hazards.

Conveners: V. Hrissanthou; Mike Spiliotis

SM.3  Cascading effects in water management

The consideration of delayed and large-scale effects of water-related disasters is not yet completely addressed in the management of surface and subsurface waterbodies, especially under legislative and societal points of view. Looking at the present management plans of waterbodies around Europe, generally is not possible to find plans addressing all natural and man-made components directly and indirectly affected by these bodies. Despite significant efforts in improving the legislation, open challenges remain associated with cascading events at many scales. Indeed, a joint assessment of flooding events and infrastructure vulnerability seems far to be included in a homogeneous process, suggesting priority problems to tackle: i) scientific limitations can generate high uncertainty or non-availability of data on the long-term impact of events, especially when social damages are involved; ii) spatial scales can be difficult to determine if the trigger hazard causes the disruption of highly interconnected infrastructures; iii) cascading requires the acceptance of reasonable worst-case scenarios, which probability sometimes is underestimated by policymakers or water managers.

Conveners: M. Nones; J. Johansson; A. Parisi

HM. 3 Machine learning applied to hydraulic and hydrological modelling

The computational power available nowadays allow us to tackle simulation challenges in hydraulic and hydrological modelling at different scales that were impossible a few decades ago. But even with in the current situation, the time needed for these simulations is inadequate for many scientific and engineering applications, such as decision support systems, flood warning systems, design/optimisation of a hydraulic structures, calibration of model parameters, uncertainty quantification, and real-time model-based control. To address this issue, the development of fast surrogate models to accelerate simulators seems to be promising strategy: it does not require a huge investment in new hardware and software, and the same tool can be used to solve very different problems. The field of Machine Learning offers a huge library of methods to build surrogate models, many of which have been successfully used in hydraulic and hydrological modelling. In this session, we would like invite papers which incorporate machine learning techniques to accelerate simulators of all types of water resources systems.

Conveners: V. Bellos; J. P. Carbajal

SM.4 Measures to prepare our rivers for the next century

In many deltas around the world lowland rivers are intensively managed to meet objectives like safety, navigation, hydropower and water supply. With the increasing pressure of growing population and climate change it will become even more challenging to reach or maintain these objectives. In the meantime there is a growing awareness that rivers are natural systems and that, rather than further regulation works, the dynamic natural processes should be better utilized (or restored) to reach the multifunctional objectives. Currently, many integrated river management projects are initiated all over the world, in large rivers as well as streams. These projects include innovative measures executed never before on this scale and include for example longitudinal training dams, side channels, removal of bank protection, remeandering of streams, dredging/nourishment and floodplain rehabilitation. In this session we focus on the physical, biological and societal effects of these innovative measures that have to prepare our rivers for future generations. Submissions could focus on evaluation of results from implemented measures or exploration studies of measures in the design phase. 

Conveners: D. CM Augustijn

SM.5 Multidisciplinary approaches in the service of water resources: what we can steal from other disciplines to improve water management

What is the expertise required to write a successful research project? And what are the skills needed to successfully manage it? How can we deal with an international team? And with a virtual team? Have we identified all the stakeholders involved and are we confident to interact with them? The aim of this session is to figure out those aspects of the research activity that are not solved by the Scientific Knowledge and that can find new positive impulses thanks to the contamination with other disciplines. Project Management, Soft skills and Business Analysis could give interesting perspectives on problem solving in different scientific fields. This session asks for contributions by professional figures who experience the importance of other disciplines approaches and/or suggest new keys and points of view on water resources project management.

Conveners: E.Celegon

NM.2 New trends data collection and analysis for environmental and industrial applications

Many hydraulic studies and applications require experimental data to be collected with different levels of accuracy, resolution and precision. “Experimentation” is broad container including many different items like instrument development, procedures for laboratory and field data collection, routines for data analysis. Together with traditional and advanced instruments, a new generation of portable, low-cost devices opens avenues for continuous measurements to be quickly and reliably taken in a variety of conditions. The proposed session, that is organized by the IAHR Committee on Experimental Methods and Instrumentation (EMI), aims at bringing together researchers active in development and use of experimental tools for all hydraulic fields and measurable quantities.

Conveners: A. Radice

SM.6 Researchers on the loose: the scientific research outside universities to find nontrivial solutions to complex problems on water management.

Why private firms and public organizations should invest on PhD and PostDoc students? PhD education surely reinforces the researchers scientific background and increases their knowledge on specific topics. Furthermore, the needs of finding innovative ideas to develop research questions inspire problem-solving skills to arise and improve. The session proposal will concern on case studies, lessons learned and valuable messages experienced on finding nontrivial solutions to complex problems on water management. This session asks for contributions by past PhD students that have decided to continue to be researchers even though they built their career outside the University. 

Conveners: E.Celegon

HS.6 Hydraulic and structural design of structures submitted to dynamic impact

This session addresses the dual problem of designing solid transport (sediment and large wood) trapping facilities that need functional and structural criteria improvement. From the functional point of view, recent works details the suitable shapes enabling the structure to fully trap, partially trap or sort large woods or only boulders. There is however not yet a consensus on the way to select a given function or on the definition the detailed design criteria for each shape. From the structural point of view, it remains unclear how to design structures to cope with the dynamic impact of water or mixtures of water and sediments.

Urbanized mountains areas are potentially affected by gravitational flows phenomena: exhaustive and proper functional and structural design criteria of protection structures are necessary to preserve these areas. Nowadays, exhaustive guidelines are still lacking. There are many types of existing structures: the most diffused are the vertical concrete walls, check dams or open check dams but also permeable devices, like nets, are increasing in number. Validating design criteria for existing and innovative structures is a fundamental step, in order to have common and effective guideline regarding this aspect. Furthermore, the choice of the types of structure employed and their right location along the rivers need a deeper understanding of their effects on sediment transport processes, enabling to prevent unwanted secondary effect (e.g., downstream incision), or to define a correct hazard mapping taking into account protection measures.  

This session aims at opening different issues regarding the numerical modelling, the experimental investigation, field feedbacks and rational approaches to the problem of trapping facilities design including both the shape design and the dynamic impact against different types of structures.

The session is open to any contribution on this topic, analyzing different devices against massive large wood and bedload transport, debris floods, debris flows and their management using trapping structures.

Conveners: G. Piton; G. Rossi