Characterization of the Winter Regime of an Urban River

• Author / Creator

  Maxwell, Joshua A.

• In the northern reaches of the globe, cities built along rivers create open leads in the river’s seasonal ice cover through warm water effluent discharge. These open leads are known for producing episodic frazil events which can block downstream intakes, causing major problems for recipients of the intake water. The Edmonton reach of the North Saskatchewan River presents an excellent example of such a case.
  
  During the 2010/11 winter, instrumentation was deployed in and along the North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton to document surface ice characteristics and suspended frazil formations. A dataset was compiled consisting of third party information and data collected during this study. Through the analysis of this data, the 2010/11 freeze-up was characterized, open lead formations were documented and suspended and surface ice events in an open lead were categorized. Formation criteria were then developed for suspended frazil events.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Frazil
  • Open Leads
  • Frazil Mitigation
  • River Ice
  • Urban Rivers
  • Bottom Mounted Sonar

• Graduation date

  Spring 2012

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R31D09

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.