{"id":6140,"date":"2011-06-02T14:15:40","date_gmt":"2011-06-02T19:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/?p=6140"},"modified":"2011-06-02T22:12:54","modified_gmt":"2011-06-03T03:12:54","slug":"simulating-river-processes-ooh-shiny-stream-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/highlyallochthonous\/2011\/06\/simulating-river-processes-ooh-shiny-stream-table\/","title":{"rendered":"Simulating river processes…ooh shiny, stream table!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/span>I\u2019ve got a shiny new Emriver Em2<\/a> river processes simulator (i.e., stream table), thanks to departmental equipment funds and enthusiastic colleagues. I\u2019ve been on sabbatical this semester and away from campus, so I haven\u2019t had a chance to play with it yet, but it is enticing me to return. I\u2019ll be teaching Fluvial Processes fall semester, so I\u2019m sure that my students and I will get plenty of chances to explore all of the nifty ways in which we can demonstrate and experiment with fluvial geomorphology. I\u2019m also playing with ideas for using the Emriver model in my hydrogeology class in the spring. I think it will be a perfect way to demonstrate ideas of hyporheic flow, seepage erosion, and break through curves in tracer tests. I think my colleagues are planning to use it in sedimentology, geomorphology and hydrology classes, and one colleague may take it with him when he does outreach activities. I\u2019m sure we will come up with even more uses for it once we get started.<\/p>\n

\"Em4<\/a>

Em4 model at work in promoting discussion about whether the arrow points to a good place to build a house.<\/p><\/div>
\nMy appetite for experiment with the stream table was whetted by a recent visit to Carbondale, Illinois and the base of operations for Little River Research and Design<\/a> (LRRD). Steve Gough is the owner of LRRD, the mastermind behind the Emriver models, and a genuinely fantastically nice person. Motivated by the idea that hands on education about stream processes is the best way to instill respect for and promote protection of streams and rivers, Steve has poured himself into making the best stream table on the market, and making it affordable enough to for people like me to get their hands on. <\/p>\n

\"Steve<\/a>

Steve Gough, Anne Jefferson and a research assistant in front of LRRD, May 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

Personally, I\u2019d always been somewhat underwhelmed by teaching- and demonstration-grade stream tables before seeing the Emriver ones. Partly it was because I\u2019d seen and read about big research flumes, like those at the St. Anthony Falls Lab<\/a> and Johns Hopkins<\/a>. But another part of it was that every time I had a chance to play with a home-built stream table I was frustrated by what it couldn\u2019t do. Principally, most stream tables don\u2019t do a very good job of reproducing the meandering behavior of lowland streams. This has even been an area of active and high profile research<\/a> in the fluvial geomorphology community. Steve\u2019s use of low density plastic beads instead of quartz sand solves that problem pretty nicely, though there’s definitely still some braiding going on.<\/p>\n