Flow and Sediment Transport in an Indonesian Tidal Network Utrecht Studies in Earth Sciences
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Flow and sediment transport in an Indonesian tidal network Utrecht Studies in Earth Sciences Local editors Prof.dr. Steven de Jong Dr. Marjan Rossen Prof.dr. Cor Langereis Drs. Jan-Willem de Blok ISSN 2211-4335 Utrecht Studies in Earth Sciences 007 Flow and sediment transport in an Indonesian tidal network Frans A. Buschman Utrecht 2011 Department of Physical Geography Faculty of Geosciences { Utrecht University Promotor Prof. dr. P. Hoekstra Co-promotoren Dr. ir. A.J.F. Hoitink Dr. M. van der Vegt Examination committee Prof. dr. ir. H.H.G. Savenije , Delft University of Technology, Delft Prof. dr. H. E. de Swart, Utrecht University, Utrecht Prof. dr. ir. R. Uijlenhoet, Wageningen University, Wageningen Dr. ir. Z. B. Wang, Delft University of Technology, Delft Prof. dr. ir. J.C. Winterwerp, Delft University of Technology, Delft ISBN 978-90-6266-288-3 Copyright c Frans A. Buschman c/o Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, 2011. Cover illustration: The Kelay river that feeds the Berau river, photograph by the author. Niets uit deze uitgave mag worden vermenigvuldigd en/of openbaar gemaakt door middel van druk, fotokopie of op welke andere wijze dan ook zonder voorafgaande schriftelijke toestemming van de uitgevers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, by print or photo print, microfilm or any other means, without written permission by the publishers. Printed in the Netherlands by Labor Grafimedia BV, Utrecht. Contents Preface 9 List of symbols 12 1 General introduction 15 1.1 Problem definition . 15 1.2 Water and suspended sediment transport . 16 1.2.1 From a river into a tidal network . 16 1.2.2 Indonesian rivers . 17 1.2.3 Tidal channels . 17 1.2.4 Tidal junctions . 21 1.3 The study area . 22 1.4 Objectives . 25 1.5 Methodology . 27 1.6 Thesis outline . 28 2 Suspended sediment loads in an Indonesian river draining a rain- forested basin subject to land cover change 29 2.1 Introduction . 29 2.2 Field site . 31 2.2.1 Geology and resources . 31 2.2.2 Climate . 32 2.2.3 The Berau river . 33 2.3 Methods . 34 2.3.1 Obtaining continuous discharge . 34 2.3.2 Obtaining profiles of suspended sediment concentration . 34 2.3.3 Obtaining continuous suspended sediment concentration . 35 2.3.4 Erosion model . 37 2.4 Observations . 38 2.4.1 Discharge . 38 2.4.2 Suspended sediment concentration . 40 2.4.3 Estimating suspended sediment particle size . 40 2.4.4 Suspended sediment load . 41 2.4.5 Variation of tidally averaged S . 41 2.4.6 Highest observed tidally averaged S . 42 2.5 Sensitivity of tidally averaged S to land cover . 43 2.5.1 Motivation and assumptions . 43 2.5.2 Erosion model results . 43 2.6 Discussion . 45 5 2.7 Conclusions . 46 3 Subtidal water level variation controlled by river flow and tides 47 3.1 Introduction . 47 3.2 Tidal dynamics in the Berau river . 50 3.2.1 General characteristics . 50 3.2.2 Discharge data acquisition . 50 3.2.3 Water level data acquisition and mean water level referencing 51 3.2.4 Observed water levels . 54 3.2.5 Observed discharge . 54 3.3 Local subtidal momentum balance . 55 3.3.1 Assumptions to be verified . 55 3.3.2 General derivation . 55 3.3.3 The subtidal balance at Gunung Tabur . 56 3.4 Sources of subtidal friction . 58 3.4.1 Method of analysis . 58 3.4.2 Decomposing the subtidal friction . 58 3.4.3 Wavelet analysis of observations . 60 3.4.4 Regression model for hζi ..................... 62 3.5 Summary and conclusions . 65 4 Subtidal flow division at a shallow tidal junction 67 4.1 Introduction . 67 4.2 Motivation: the Berau channel network . 69 4.3 Barotropic modeling of flow division . 72 4.3.1 Model setup . 72 4.3.2 Setup of the sensitivity analysis . 74 4.3.3 Discharge calculation and discharge asymmetry index . 75 4.4 Simulation results . 75 4.4.1 Sensitivity to channel depth . 75 4.4.2 Sensitivity to channel length and width . 80 4.4.3 Sensitivity to bed roughness . 82 4.4.4 Sensitivity to river discharge . 84 4.5 Discussion . 86 4.6 Conclusions . 89 5 Water and suspended sediment division at a stratified tidal junction 91 5.1 Introduction . 91 5.2 Field site . 94 5.3 Data acquisition and processing . 95 5.3.1 Flow velocity . 95 5.3.2 Density gradients . 96 5.3.3 Profiles of optically derived suspended sediment concentration 96 5.3.4 Suspended sediment concentration in the cross-section . 97 6 5.3.5 Obtaining transports . 98 5.4 Results . 99 5.4.1 Water level and discharge . 99 5.4.2 Salinity profiles . 100 5.4.3 Total and fresh water transports . 102 5.4.4 Suspended sediment transports . 105 5.5 Discussion . 108 5.6 Conclusions and recommendations . 111 6 Extended summary 113 6.1 The Berau region . 113 6.2 Discharge and sediment load from the river catchment . 113 6.3 Fortnightly hydrodynamic variations in the tidal river . 114 6.4 Flow and suspended sediment division at tidal junctions . 115 6.5 In conclusion . 117 6.6 Recommendations . 118 Appendix A Regional intratidal momentum balance 120 References 122 Summary 130 Samenvatting 133 Ringkasan 136 About the author 139 Publication list 140 7 Preface This dissertation is based on observations made in the beautiful Berau region. I enjoyed to be in the Berau delta with rainforest, mangrove forest and muddy water. For the PhD project of Ayi Tarya, we also did fieldwork in the deep blue sea around idyllic coral reef islands close to the Berau delta. We needed to explore the coral reefs both above and under water, which was lovely! The projects of Ayi and me cover most of the physical aspects of the Berau cluster that includes in total 7 projects. This cluster is part of the East Kalimantan coastal zone research programme (EKP). I thank the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), divisions Earth and Life Sciences (ALW) and WOTRO science for global development, and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) for funding and organizing EKP. Many people helped me to finish this PhD project. In the first place, I would like to thank my supervisors Piet Hoekstra (promotor), Ton Hoitink and Maarten van der Vegt. Piet, you wrote the successful proposal for my PhD project and you always felt much involved in this project. Ton, you were always available to comment constructively on some results or a draft of a paper. You stimulated me to dig deeper, try to get the most out of the obtained data sets and write that down logically and precisely. Maarten, you came in our group at about the time I started a modeling study. We involved you soon and you became my second daily supervisor. Your modeling expertise was useful, as well as your constructive and inspiring comments on data analysis and draft manuscripts. The fieldwork would not have been successful without the support of a number of people. Marcel van Maarseveen and other FG-lab members performed an excellent job in preparing the instruments to measure in the tropical and rough conditions. It seemed that Marcel had prepared a solution for the break down of any part of every instrument, such that we could entirely focus on observing. I would like to thank Ayi for his contribution in the three fieldwork campaigns, our collaboration afterwards and translating the summary into Indonesian. Also the other members of the Berau cluster are acknowledged for the collaboration in the field. Students from Wageningen University (Bart Vermeulen, David Vermaas and Durk Veenstra), from Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) and from the Utrecht University (Mirjam Leenheer and Evert Wielsma) joined one of the campaigns. Most of them did not mind to scuba dive in the Berau river and tidal network, although the visibility was sometimes less than 0.1 m! Thanks for your support during the fieldwork and your reports afterwards. The local people of the Berau region were usually friendly and often full of joy. I thank pa Sofian and his family for letting us stay in their house, cafe Kelay, and letting us feel at home. Also thanks to the people of cafe Derawan and Derawan dive resort, who let us feel to be on holidays in the limited spare time we had. I am most grateful to pa Darlansyah, who was our captain in the delta. Without using a map, his orientation in the numerous branches in the delta was sometimes better than ours, 9 although we both had a GPS and a map. He also controlled his boat perfectly in the highest flow velocities and he always seemed to be happy. If we occasionally got stuck (like when Evert was sailing the boat and all others sat on the roof), he jumped into the muddy water to push the boat out, while he remained smiling. Terima kasih untuk semuanya! I experienced a good research environment in the coastal group of the physical geography department. Gerben, Pim, Susanne, Leo, Leo, Timothy, Florent, Adrien, Jasper, Renske, Albert, Bart, Thijs, Florin, Amanda and Quentin, I am grateful for your interest and the discussions we had. I also appreciated the wide diversity of topics that we discussed during our Italian lunches on Fridays. From the rest of the department, I would like to thank Steven de Jong and Rens van Beek for their contribution to better understand erosion and flow in the Berau catchment.