River dunes occur in low-land rivers worldwide and are vital in estimating sediment transport and deposition within fluvial systems. Dune sizes and mobility vary and therewith may interfere with inland shipping and affect sediment (bedload) fluxes. Analysing bed morphodynamics allows for determining spatio-temporal variations in size and migration rate of individual dunes, as well as the longterm, large-scaled trends in bed elevation. However, merely dune tracking does not fully explain sediment storage/reactivation in river systems. Observing sedimentary structures in the shallow subsurface will enable us to reconstruct the preservation and reactivation of river dunes over time.
This project aims to collect high-resolution Parametric Echo Sounder (PES) data of the subsurface of dunes in the River Waal, Netherlands, simultaneously with multibeam data and sediment vibrocores, and to interpret internal dune structures, to – in a later phase – be able to couple these structures to morphodynamics as obtained from multibeam (MBES) time series.
The project will result in knowledge of river systems and new technical know-how on applying the PES technique in Dutch rivers. This knowledge can be used for quantifying sediment dynamics for river management, improving numerical models with bed roughness and sediment supply predictors and for improving shipping safety

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