Sediment transport in geophysical flows spans diverse environments including mountainous regions, rivers, estuaries, coasts, deserts, and engineered settings on Earth, and also shapes planetary surfaces such as Mars, Titan, and Venus. Understanding how sediments move remains a central challenge in hydrological, geomorphological, and planetary sciences. These processes operate across multiple spatial and temporal scales—from the movement of individual particles to landscape evolution—directly affecting geomorphology as well as ecological and biological functions in terrestrial environments, and influencing the structural resilience of built infrastructure.
Critical feedbacks between fluid motion, sediment dynamics, and particle interactions—such as size sorting—drive surface process variability, with implications ranging from hydraulic engineering and hazard risk management to predicting landscape and ecosystem responses.
A) Particle-Scale Interactions and Transport Mechanics:
-Entrainment mechanics in both fluvial and aeolian flows
-Turbulent energy and momentum transfer to particles
-Statistical approaches to upscaling stochastic sediment movement
-Dynamics of granular flow in dry and submerged scenarios
-Effects of grain morphology on sediment and granular transport
-Interactions among mixed-size sediment grains and segregation processes
-Discrete element modeling and upscaling into continuum frameworks
B) Reach-Scale Fluvial and Geomorphic Dynamics:
-Relationships among flow hydraulics, sediment transport, bedform development, and stratigraphy
-Equation development and solution for multiphase flows in rivers and air
-Shallow-water hydro-sediment-morphodynamic modelling
-Characterizing complex, unsteady flows including flash floods and granular mass movements
-Extreme event impacts: flood waves, debris flows, landslides
C) Landscape Evolution, Hazards, and Engineering Applications:
-Dam failure processes (natural and engineered) and cascading hazards
-Coastal sediment transport (long-shore, cross-shore) and shoreline evolution
-Reservoir management and sediment process interactions
-Hydraulic structure design (e.g., fish passes, spillways) with consideration of sediment impacts
-Maintenance and management of waterways: dredging, regulation in large river systems