RSM River Mechanics Podcast

Peter Wilcock on Gravel Bed Rivers, Partial Transport, Armor Layer Persistence and Channel Design (Plus Wilcock & Crowe)


Listen Later

When HEC hired me to add sediment transport to HEC-RAS almost 20 years ago now, I inherited a set of sediment transport functions that were mostly developed in the early to mid 20th century.  
These were – and continue to be – important equations.
But when I sat down with the RAS team 
To talk about the new science I was excited to include in a river mechanics model.
I pulled out the same binder I brought to this interview
 
We are wrapping up our third season of the podcast, and our three-part mini series on gravel bed rivers  And talking to the scientist who wrote all the papers in that binder, seems like a fitting way to wrap up both.

Dr. Peter Wilcock spent much of his career at Johns’ Hopkins, where he and his team developed the Wilcock and Crowe transport equation and did some of the most important gravel bed transport work that was hitting the journals when I was coming of age in the field.

Peter is unquestionably one of the most important contemporary contributors to quantitative gravel-bed transport science and engineering.
He won the American Society of Civil Engineers Hans Albert Einstein award in 2008 and is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union.

And we talked a lot about that fundamental, early work, that is just kind of part of established gravel bed transport theory these days.

But 10 years ago he moved to Utah State, improving his proximity to classic gravel bed rivers, and in the years since I put that binder together of his paradigm shifting work, 
Peter has been very intentional about translating his science into practical channel design methods, particularly for restoration channel designs.

So we talked about both…starting out with more of the channel design topics and then moving into his classic findings. 

The Link to Peter's Stream Assessment and Design Class Materials (including iSURF) that we talk about is here:
https://qcnr.usu.edu/wats/programs/short-courses/sediment-transport/course-materials-2022

We also talk about Ron Copeland's channel design method.  We made a short video with Ron on that method which is good background for this episode here:
https://youtu.be/ykJ3FA39p0g
Ron's podcast is here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ron-copeland-on-analytical-channel-design-the-laursen/id1650989239?i=1000587444097

Finally, we also have an interview with Joanna Curran (the Crowe in Wilcock and Crowe) which makes a good companion to this episode here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/joanna-curran-on-gravel-bed-rivers-wilcock-and-crowe/id1650989239?i=1000589529286







This series was funded by the Regional Sediment Management (RSM) program.

Mike Loretto edited the first three seasons and created the theme music.
Tessa Hall is editing most of Season 4.

Stanford Gibson (HEC Sediment Specialist) hosts.

Video shorts and other bonus content are available at the podcast website:
https://www.hec.usace.army.mil/confluence/rasdocs/rastraining/latest/the-rsm-river-mechanics-podcast

...but most of the supplementary videos are available on the HEC Sediment YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/stanfordgibson

If you have guest recommendations or feedback you can reach out to me on LinkedIn or ResearchGate or fill out this recommendation and feedback form: https://forms.gle/wWJLVSEYe7S8Cd248

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

RSM River Mechanics PodcastBy Stanford Gibson

  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5
  • 5

5

21 ratings


More shows like RSM River Mechanics Podcast

View all
This American Life by This American Life

This American Life

91,051 Listeners

Radiolab by WNYC Studios

Radiolab

44,010 Listeners

Freakonomics Radio by Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Freakonomics Radio

32,124 Listeners

Hidden Brain by Hidden Brain, Shankar Vedantam

Hidden Brain

43,624 Listeners

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! by NPR

Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!

38,761 Listeners

99% Invisible by Roman Mars

99% Invisible

26,179 Listeners

The Best of Car Talk by NPR

The Best of Car Talk

16,572 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

112,327 Listeners

Up First from NPR by NPR

Up First from NPR

56,375 Listeners

Wet Fly Swing Fly Fishing Podcast by Dave Stewart

Wet Fly Swing Fly Fishing Podcast

499 Listeners

Throughline by NPR

Throughline

16,214 Listeners

Fiction - Comedy Fiction by The Sunset Explorers

Fiction - Comedy Fiction

6,446 Listeners

Floodlines by The Atlantic

Floodlines

3,368 Listeners

Geology Bites by Oliver Strimpel

Geology Bites

8 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

15,967 Listeners