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Cellular Automata Modelling of Fluvial Evolution: Real and Parametric Numerical Results Comparison Along River Pellice (NW Italy)

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Abstract

The past two decades have seen significant improvements in the study of river morphology, in particular with regard to the analysis of the processes governing fluvial evolution resulting from the erosion and transport of sediments. Important results have been achieved thanks to the evolution of both instrumental and computational tools. Within the former framework, new technologies have allowed a more detailed representation of terrain (digital terrain model (DTM) obtained by light detection and ranging (LiDAR) survey), while, within the latter, the increase in the calculation speed of the latest platforms and the development of new mathematical and numerical algorithms have enabled the simulation of a much more complex phenomena. This paper discusses the application of a cellular automaton model (CAESAR) on a river reach. Simulated and measured data are compared through statistical approaches. The method is applied to a wandering stretch of River Pellice in the Italian north-western Alps.

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Acknowledgments

This work was carried out as a part of a research contract between the AIPO (Agenzia Interregionale per il Po) and CNR-IRPI Torino (National Research Council—Research Institute for Geo-Hydrological Protection). The scientific manager of the project in CNR-IRPI was Giorgio Lollino, and the LiDAR survey was realized in accordance with the contract stipulations. The research is part of a PhD on river morphology evolution and modelling conducted by Chiara Audisio (tutor Prof. Antonio Pasculli).

We wish to thank Prof. Tom Coulthard, the creator of CAESAR, for his helpful suggestions on preliminary running the software and for his comments and support to the model test. Many thanks also to Luca Ziliani for his support and suggestions on performing the simulation test.

Special thanks go to Marco Baldo, Franco Godone and Elisa Damiano for their assistance in LiDAR and GPS data survey and analysis and for her support during the field survey, respectively.

We also wish to thank the editor and Ms. Lorelie Protacio for their effort and the two anonymous referees for their constructive suggestions to improve the quality of this paper.

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  1. Department of Engineering and Geology, Università degli Studi “G. d’Annunzio” di Chieti, Via dei Vestini 31, Chieti, Italy

    Antonio Pasculli & Chiara Audisio

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  1. Antonio Pasculli
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  2. Chiara Audisio
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Correspondence to Chiara Audisio.

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Pasculli, A., Audisio, C. Cellular Automata Modelling of Fluvial Evolution: Real and Parametric Numerical Results Comparison Along River Pellice (NW Italy). Environ Model Assess 20, 425–441 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-015-9444-8

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