1400 ‎(2)‎

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 1400
• Author: Simons, D. B., et al., ed.
• Title: Proceedings
• USFW Year: 1980.
• USFW - Doc Type: Workshop on Downstream River Channel Changes Resulting From Diversions or Reservoir Construction.
• Copyright Material: NO

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STUDIES ON THE MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE YAMPA RIVER

Dr. R. J. Garde
Professor and Head of Civil Engineering Department,
University of Roorkee, ROORKEE-247672, India

INTRODUCTION

The data concerning the Yampa River were made available to the
author by the organizers of the workshop for carrying out a detai-led
morphological analysis of this river. A close scrutiny of these data
and the questions posed led the author to study the following aspects of
the problem. -

1. Morphological characteristics of the Yampa River from Maybell
to its confluence with the Green River in the absence of flood
control reservoirs, with particular reference to planform ~nd
longitudinal slope.

2. Response of the Yampa River to the construction of flood
control reservoirs with reference to bed level variations.

The resul ts of the ana lysi s are reported in the present paper;
details of the data, and other information made available to the parti-
cipants are omitted to avoid repetition. It would not be out of place
to mention here that owing to the paucity of time and the difficulties
in getting clarifications or informaton on telephone over such a long
distance, the author was constrained to make several assumptions, either
intuitively or on the basis of certain deductions.

PRESENT CHARACTERISTICS OF THE YAMPA RIVER

In dealing with a river, a thorough understanding of
logical characteristics is the first essential step in the
its response to manmade changes. Accordingly, several
features of the Yampa River are studied first.

Meander Pattern of the Yampa River SetweEtlLtheLi-ttt-e5nik.e and the
Green River

its morpho-
analysis of
interesting

The planview of the Yampa River along with the longitudinal bed
slope for the va ri ous reaches is shown in Fi gure 1. The slopes have
been calculated from the knowledge of elevations and di.stances obtained
from the contour maps. It can be seen that th, slope varies from 60.90
-4 -4
x 10 to 4.84 x 10 and that the reach under consideration is a
meandering one. It was thus thought desirable to study these meander
patterns in terms of meander 1 ength ML' meander belt MS' and the

radius of curvature R. Thus, for the meander pattern shown in Figure
I, the values of ML' MS' and R were actually measured. In the measure-

ment of R, it was assumed that the meander loop is a segment of a circle
of eq~ivalent radius and the best possible fit of this segment for the
curved surface of the meander was used to calculate R.

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