River Channel Morphology Model

Venkatesh Merwade, CRWR

Table of Contents

 

Introduction – What is RCMM?  

River Channel Morphology Model (RCMM) is an analytical model that uses the river channel planform (meandering shape) and physical attributes such as the mean depth and channel width to create a three-dimensional description of the channel-bed in the form of a mesh comprising of cross-sections and profile-lines (ground profiles along flow). The input to the model: meandering shape and physical attributes of the channel (depth and width) can be obtained from the NHD flowlines and hydraulic geometry relationships, respectively. The input data can also be obtained from other sources such as aerial photographs (for meandering shape and width) and field measurements. RCMM is available in the form of a toolbar in ArcGIS 9.1. Besides using RCMM for creating the three-dimensional description of the channel bed, it can be used to perform other analysis in GIS such as assigning hydraulic modeling attributes and exchange of data between GIS and hydraulic models via XML. The current version of RCMM supports HEC-RAS model, but the XML output from RCMM can be used to input data to other models as well.

 

Figure 1. Typical output from RCMM

with a mesh of cross-sections and profile-lines

RCMM Tutorial

The linked tutorial (pdf document) describes the step-by-step procedure to implement RCMM for creating a three-dimensional structure for river channels in the absence of detailed channel bathymetry. The dataset for the tutorial is provided here, or you can download it from the supporting material section.

Linking RCMM to HEC-RAS

The linked tutorial (pdf document) describes the step-by-step procedure on exchanging data between RCMM and HEC-RAS via XML.

Supporting Materials

  1. RCMM tutorial
  2. Data for RCMM tutorial
  3. Tutorial for linking RCMM to HEC-RAS
  4. Data for RCMM to HEC-RAS tutorial
  5. Theoretical description of RCMM (see Chapter 5)

Primary Contact

Dr. Venkatesh Merwade
Post-doctoral Fellow

Center for Research in Water Resources

University of Texas at Austin iversity of Texas at Austin

 

e-mail: vmmerwade@mail.utexas.edu

Phone: (512) 471-0570

 

(Note: I am moving to Purdue University starting August 2006 to join the faculty of Civil Engineering as an Assistant Professor, but my UT email vmmerwade@mail.utexas.edu will still be operational. Please feel free to contact me with any questions related to RCMM.

These materials may be used for study, research, and education, but please credit the authors and the Center for Research in Water Resources, The University of Texas at Austin. All commercial rights reserved. Copyright 2004 Center for Research in Water Resources.