Effect of Woody Vegetation on Hydraulic Conductivity at Various Levee Systems Using Numerical Models

Abstract

The objective of this study was to provide a better understanding of the influence of a root system from woody vegetation on hydraulic conductivity of soils in levee systems. By evaluating changes in hydraulic conductivity, conditions for seepage, specifically underseepage and piping,can be identified. To meet this objective, seepage analyses using the finite element method were conducted for representative levees in Sacramento, CA; Burlington, WA; Albuquerque, NM; and Portland, OR. A levee cross section for each of these levee systems was constructed using the Groundwater Modeling System1 to support both two-dimensional (2-D) steady-state and transient computations using Seep2D2. Three-dimensional (3-D) solutions were also derived by extruding these 2-D cross sections to form a 3-D mesh and then running a parallel 3-D groundwater program using high performance computing.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2012
Accession Number
ADA563852

Entities

People

  • Fred T. Tracy
  • Maureen K. Corcoran

Organizations

  • Engineer Research and Development Center

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Columbia River
  • Conductivity
  • Electronic Mail
  • Elevation
  • Finite Element Analysis
  • Floods
  • Geometry
  • Groundwater
  • Information Systems
  • Levees
  • Numerical Analysis
  • Steady State
  • Three Dimensional
  • Two Dimensional
  • Vegetation
  • Water
  • Water Resources

Readers

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Environmental Remediation and Restoration.
  • Geotechnical Engineering.