Effect of macrophyte spatial variability on channel resistance

Aquatic macrophytes can severely retard flow rates in the river channels that they occupy. Consequently, there is a need to improve our ability to model vegetation resistance, to aid flood prediction and allow for better-informed channel management. An empirical model is developed to calculate flow resistance (Manning’s resistance coefficient) of channels containing the submergent macrophyte Ranunculus (water-crowfoot). Blockage factors (the proportion of a cross-section blocked by vegetation) were determined for up to nine cross-sections at each of 35 river sites. These were used to create blockage-factor percentiles, which were regressed against vegetation resistance. An exponential best-fit relation involving the 69th blockage-factor percentile gave the best results. A parameter relating the length of the vegetated/solid boundary in contact with the open channel to the length of the conventionally-defined wetted perimeter improved the model fit by acting as a pseudo-measure of the turbulent-energy losses generated within the unvegetated stream by the macrophytes. The model was tested on three additional sites containing different macrophyte species and much higher vegetation blockages, and was found to work well.