Davide Motta

In Situ Characterization of Resuspended-Sediment Oxygen Demand in Bubbly Creek, Chicago, Illinois

Sediment oxygen demand (SOD) can be a significant oxygen sink in various types of water bodies, particularly slow-moving waters with substantial organic sediment accumulation. In most settings in which SOD is a concern, the prevailing hydraulic conditions are such that the impact of sediment resuspension on SOD is not considered. However, in the case of Bubbly Creek in Chicago, the prevailing slack water conditions are interrupted by infrequent intervals of very high flow rates associated with pumped combined sewer overflow (CSO) during intense hydrologic events. These events can cause resuspension of the highly organic, nutrient-rich bottom sediments, resulting in precipitous drawdown of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the water column. To address this issue, a new in situ experimental apparatus designed to achieve high flow velocities was implemented to characterize SOD, both with and without sediment resuspension. In the case of resuspension, the suspended sediment concentration was analyzed as a function of ...

Modification of meander migration by bank failures

Meander migration and planform evolution depend on the resistance to erosion of the floodplain materials. To date, research to quantify meandering river adjustment has largely focused on resistance to erosion properties that vary horizontally. This paper evaluates the combined effect of horizontal and vertical floodplain material heterogeneity on meander migration by simulating fluvial erosion and cantilever and planar bank mass failure processes responsible for bank retreat. The impact of stream bank failures on meander migration is conceptualized in our RVR Meander model through a bank armoring factor associated with the dynamics of slump blocks produced by cantilever and planar failures. Simulation periods smaller than the time to cutoff are considered, such that all planform complexity is caused by bank erosion processes and floodplain heterogeneity and not by cutoff dynamics. Cantilever failure continuously affects meander migration, because it is primarily controlled by the fluvial erosion at the bank toe. Hence, it impacts migration rates and meander shapes through the horizontal and vertical distribution of erodibility of floodplain materials. Planar failures are more episodic. However, in floodplain areas characterized by less cohesive materials, they can affect meander evolution in a sustained way and produce preferential migration patterns. Model results show that besides the hydrodynamics, bed morphology and horizontal floodplain heterogeneity, floodplain stratigraphy can significantly affect meander evolution, both in terms of migration rates and planform shapes. Specifically, downstream meander migration can either increase or decrease with respect to the case of a homogeneous floodplain; lateral migration generally decreases as result of bank protection due to slump blocks; and the effect on bend skewness depends on the location and volumes of failed bank material caused by cantilever and planar failures along the bends, with possible achievement of downstream bend skewness under certain conditions.

Modeling Framework for Organic Sediment Resuspension and Oxygen Demand: Case of Bubbly Creek in Chicago

A modeling framework that combines both two-dimensional (2D) and one-dimensional (1D) numerical models for the evaluation of organic-matter transport across the bed-water interface is presented. Emphasis is placed on capturing oxygen demand in the water column associated with the resuspension of organic sediments from the bottom. The proposed numerical approach solves the hydrodynamics coupled with sediment transport and water quality dynamics and represents a substantial improvement to the state of the art of water quality modeling methodologies available in the literature. A biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)–dissolved oxygen (DO) water quality module is incorporated into the 2D depth-averaged numerical model STREMR-HySedWq. The model is applied to the South Fork of the South Branch of the Chicago River, known as Bubbly Creek, with the goal of modeling combined sewer overflow (CSO) events and their impact on DO levels in the short-term (hours or days). Given the intermittent nature of this kind of events, ...

Two-dimensional BOD and DO water quality model for engineering applications: the case of Bubbly Creek in Chicago, Illinois

Bubbly Creek was historically used as a drainage channel for the waste resulting from Chicago’s stockyards. Nowadays there is flow in the creek only during rainfall events resulting in Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) and water quality is a very important issue, particularly during the summer months, when the dissolved oxygen levels are extremely low and sediment oxygen demand is expected to be large. Due to the particular flow regimes of the creek and the conditions of the benthic sediments in the bed, a special BOD-DO (Biochemical Oxygen Demand Dissolved Oxygen) water quality module was developed and implemented into the two-dimensional depth-averaged numerical model STREMR-HySedWq. The approach illustrated represents a substantial improvement to the state-of-the-art of water quality modeling methodologies. The model was able to capture the key processes and provide useful preliminary results for the two following scenarios: [1] CSO events, for which the model was coupled to a one-dimensional cross-section-averaged BOD-DO water quality model, and [2] potential “purification” solutions, such as flow augmentation and supplemental aeration, with the goal of increasing the DO levels in the creek during dry weather periods. DESCRIPTION OF BUBBLY CREEK