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From gravel to sand: Downstream fining of bed sediments in the lower river Rhine
Author(s): Roy Frings Produced by: Utrecht University Publication type: PhDthesis Keywords: sediment transport, Rhine, dunes
Description about the research publication
Given my fascination for mountainous areas, it was a rather daring action to start a PhD research on lowland river dynamics, but I have never regretted the choice. Rivers, their landscapes, morphology and deposits turned out to be equally enthralling as mountains. In the past four years, I worked on this thesis with much pleasure and I am happy to present the result to you. It benefited from the help of many, and I greatly acknowledge them all.
In the first place I thank my promotores and co-promotores: Ward Koster, Leo van Rijn,
Maarten Kleinhans and Janrik van den Berg. They always showed confidence in the project, allowed me to develop own research directions, provided research ideas and spent a lot of time reviewing my manuscripts. I am especially indebted to Maarten Kleinhans, whose enthusiasm, energy and great reading formed a continuous source of motivation for me.
I am indebted to Rob Ferguson, Emil Gölz, Huib de Vriend, Wilfried ten Brinke and Jan
Ribberink for kindly accepting the invitation to become members of the examination committee for my PhD defence. Rob Ferguson furthermore minutely reviewed several chapters of this thesis and gave valuable comments.
Rijkswaterstaat funded most of the research, provided data and turned out to be a pleasant
and helpful project partner. I deeply appreciate the effort and commitment of the measuring crew during the harsh weather conditions of the discharge waves. Together with Wilfried ten Brinke, Leonie Bolwidt, Peter Jesse and Arjan Sieben I discussed the results of the field campaigns and I thank them for all the organisational work they did.
I also thank the other members of the “Morphological Triangle” (NCR), especially the
Geological Survey of the Netherlands (TNO B&O) and WL|Delft Hydraulics.
Without the unique grain size dataset collected by Stephan Gruijters and his colleagues from the Geological Survey, this thesis on sediment sorting phenomena would have been almost impossible. Erik Mosselman from WL|Delft Hydraulics introduced me to the engineering approach to river morphology and his colleagues Willem Ottevanger and Kees Sloff put more effort and time in helping me build a downstream fining model than I ever expected.
Emil Gölz and Stefan Vollmer from the Bundesanstalt für Gewässerkunde in Koblenz
provided grain size data from the German Rhine, financially supported the research and offered me a job. I am very grateful for all they did.
Bas Berbee (together with several of his friends and family members) did many difficult
corings in historical Waal deposits, which allowed me to study historical changes in bed grain size. Chris Roosendaal supported this field campaign technically and Gilles Erkens, Esther Stouthamer, Marc Gouw en Kim Cohen helped interpreting the data. I owe them many thanks.
Though doing research is great fun, I have found even more satisfaction in teaching activities.
I thank all who enabled me to develop my educational skills, especially Wim Hoek and my co-promotores. Very enjoyable were the yearly excursions to the Belgian Ardennes, where we stayed in the magnificent, but slightly ruined Chateau de Spontin. I thank my colleagues from the Department of Earth Sciences for the pleasant co-operation.
My colleagues and ex-colleagues from the Department of Physical Geography provided an excellent working climate. Especially the support and friendship of the other PhD candidates and young researchers meant a lot to me. With my roommates and paranimfs Gilles Erkens and Loes van Schaik I shared all sorts of professional and personal issues. Gilles the metropolitan dandy and Loes the widely-travelled mother-of-two together form an unlikely, but most pleasant, scientific couple. I thank them very much and hope that we won’t lose contact.
My family and friends provided the necessary diversion from work, which I needed very
much. I thank them for the conviviality, numerous birthday parties and lovely evening
discussions. Some of my friends also directly contributed to this thesis. Richard Spierts gave advice on historical issues and helped with fieldwork (which was very enjoyable amidst squatters and unexpectedly deep floodplain channels). With Joyce Akse I often travelled home by train, which allowed us to exchange PhD experiences from social and exact sciences. Martijn Bok gave graphical advice and Richard, Joyce, Rob, Roland and Sven offered me hospitality in their homes during the field campaigns.
My wife Vivian provided moral support, editing assistance and many cups of tea. I am much more indebted to her than I can ever express!
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