A large scale flume for hydro-environmental studies

Abstract

The understanding of key hydrologic processes such as, water erosion, rill network development or agrochemical transport, requires controlled experiments at the appropriate scale. This is the reason for experimentation at flume scale in hydro-environmental research, used for many decades in this field. This communication presents a research infrastructure, recently completed in its first stage, consisting of a large flume for studying soil water erosion, sediment transport, and environmental processes such as the transport of different substances (salts, fertilizers, herbicides, carbon, . . . ) rather dissolved or absorbed with the sediment. It is located at the Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (CSIC) in Córdoba, Spain. The flume is 0.6 m deep, 12 m long, and 6 m wide. It may be divided longitudinally into three channels (6 m long, 1 m wide). The slope of the flume can be regulated from 0 % to 20 %. The device allows studying free surface flows over movable beds with different conditions of sediment transport by supplying clear or sediment-laden water from its head system. The head system consists of three triangular weirs for accurate measurement of water flow, three stilling tanks at the entrance of the flume, and three vibratory hoppers for applying sediments at pre-set rates. The water can be re-circulated, the maximum inflow is then about 30 l s-1, or evacuated, then the inflow is limited to about 20 l s-1