WV

WM van Dijk

Also known as: Wouter Matthijs van Dijk

Research areas: Earth and Planetary Sciences · Earth-Surface Processes · Hydrology and Sediment Transport Processes · Geological formations and processes · Coastal and Marine Dynamics

ORCID iD 0000-0002-7276-1824
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About

I’m interested in the morphology of fluvial systems and the changes that occur over time. What are the autogenic processes that form the fluvial morphology, e.g. distinctive river patterns, megafans, river-dominated deltas, and river estuaries, and what influence have allogenic processes on this fluvial morphology. Besides the processes that form the river morphology, e.g. sediment transport, bank erosion, bank collapses, flow slides and bar formation, I’m also interested in the sedimentary architecture which is left behind.

Currently, I work on a project as part of the Vici proposal of Prof. Dr. MG Kleinhans 'Turning the tide: Dynamics of channels and shoals in estuaries with sands and mud'. The main objective is to generate understanding of natural dynamics and response to human interference of channels and shoals in river estuaries, and subsequently produce improved forecasting tools. This includes classic bank erosion in the river-dominated reach, shoal margin collapse by fluidisation and by breaching, and salt marsh retreat.
My specific objectives are to:
1. analyse channel margin collapse in available detailed field data.
2. test and develop parameterisations for channel margin collapse in estuaries in Delft3D.
3. analyse how the collapsed material spreads through the system and affects and perhaps perturbs the channel network.

Previously, I worked on the Changing Water Cycle project with Alex Densmore, which is a project in collaboration with several Universities in the UK and in India. The aim of this project is to develop an integrated geological and hydrological understanding of the groundwater system of the northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plains, one of the world's largest aquifers and where groundwater resources are considered to be at greatest risk. My part was to model the architecture of the palaeochannel aquifer system for the northwestern Indo-Gangetic Plains. This was used to develop a regional-scale understanding of aquifer geometry, the degree of connectivity within the system, and its likely evolution over Holocene time scales.

Before that, I worked as a PhD on the subject how meandering rivers can form. I tried to find the necessary conditions for meandering by reproducing a gravel-bed meandering river in a laboratory. Earlier experiments failed to reproduce sustainable meandering. The question is to what extent this is due to scaling problems and to what extent it reflects our limited understanding. We simulate several river patterns by varying discharge regime and adding vegetation or cohesive fines to the experiments. I identified which autogenic processes were essential in the formation of a meandering river, while my colleague, Wietse van de Lageweg, studied the sedimentary architecture and the preservation potential of the migrating river.

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