Author(s): Jared Stieve; Belize Lane; Anzy Lee

Linked Author(s):

Keywords: DEM; Synthetic river channels; Channel variability functions; Disturbances; River Builder; Reverse- engineer; Ecohydraulics; Historic aerial imagery

Abstract: A challenge in assessing long-term channel change and the impact to aquatic habitat is having sufficient channel morphology to quantify habitat conditions at a relevant scale and resolution . Current ecohydraulic approaches (e.g. 2D aquatic habitat modeling) require high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) as input into 2D hydraulic models. This allows us to accurately characterize microhabitat conditions for a range of species and life stages. Unfortunately, many historic, long-term channel morphology monitoring protocols rely on channel thalweg and cross-section surveys which are too coarse to use simple interpolation schemes to create DEMs. New geometric channel modeling techniques can potentially reverse engineer high-resolution terrains using these sparse datasets. In this presentation, we will show how we leverage channel thalweg and cross-section data with aerial imagery to reverse engineer synthetic terrains for a highly dynamic river in California. This will then allow us to characterize changes in aquatic habitat using 2D hydraulic models as the channel morphology evolved following episodic, extreme inputs of sediment following anthropogenic disturbances.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.64697/iahr.proc.ise2026.abs.132

Year: 2026