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PETER R. WILCOCK, John Hopkins University e) <br />Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering <br />Baltimore MD 21218 (\J� <br />River sedimentation processes and their role in river management; Mechanics of earth surface processes; <br />laboratory and field experiments in sediment transport, open - channel flow, fluvial and hillslope <br />geomorphology. <br />Selected Courses: <br />Introduction to Computation and Mathematical Modeling <br />Open Channel Hydraulics <br />Peter Wilcock received a B.S. (1978) in physical geography from the University of Illinois, an M.S. (1981) <br />in geomorphology from McGill University, and a Ph.D. (19 87) in geology from the Massachusetts Institute <br />of Technology. He joined the Hopkins faculty in 1987, specializing in problems of erosion and <br />sedimentation and their role in river management. He has held a joint appointment in the Department of <br />Civil Engineering since 1990. He teaches courses in fluid mechanics, mathematical modeling, open - <br />channel flow, sediment transport, and river mechanics. He has co- authored a text on continuum mechanics <br />for the earth and environmental sciences. <br />Research Statement <br />The core of our research has been on the mechanics of sediment transport, particularly the fluvial transport <br />of mixed sand and gravel. Much of the work has been done in our laboratory flume, which was constructed <br />on the ground floor of Ames Hall in 1988. We have also worked on a number of applications of mixed -size <br />sediment transport, including the effect of land use on river channel change, the prescription of sediment <br />maintenance flushing flows, downstream fining in gravel -bed rivers, and channel maintenance flows in <br />mountain streams with water diversions. As part of these <br />applications, we have focused increased attention on developing a transport model that is both accurate and <br />simple enough to be practically applicable. <br />We have developed a two - fraction approach that requires relatively simple input while capturing the <br />essential features of the transport, including size - sorting and the transient passage of fine - grained sediment <br />waves through a river system (see Wilcock, 2001, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms). <br />More recently, we have developed two models for the transport of mixed -size sediments. One uses two <br />fractions (sand and gravel) and the other uses many fractions. These are based on an unprecedented set of <br />flume data in which we made coupled observations of flow, transport rate, and bed - surface size distribution <br />for a range of transport rates with each of five different sediments. The models are referenced to the <br />composition of <br />the bed surface, rather than subsurface, making them general and capable of predicting transient conditions. <br />The experiments are discussed in Wilcock, Kenworthy, and Crowe (Water Resources Research, Dec. 2001) <br />and the data can be downloaded as an MS Excel document. Papers on the two models are on the verge of <br />coming out (as of March 2002) in WRR and JHE. If you are reading this in, say, 2003, send me an email to <br />remind me to <br />update my web site with the references. A more general perspective on flow, bed, and sediment transport <br />can be found in my contribution to the Fifth gravel -bed Rivers Workshop, which can be downloaded from <br />the reference list below. <br />While continuing to work on the details of transport and bed surface mechanics, we are also plunging into <br />ever larger scales. We have begun collaborating on a project to build a model to route sand through the <br />Colorado River in the Grand Canyon and we are developing an initiative to build a comprehensive <br />sediment budget in the 132 mil watershed of the Upper Patuxent River, just north of Washington DC. The <br />next big step is finding ways to apply sediment mechanics appropriately, accurately, and practically <br />at the reach and watershed scale. <br />Current Research Projects <br />Modeling stream -bed surfaces: flume and theoretical study of bed surface change and armor development. <br />