River Erosion Impact on Transport Infrastructure in "Gilort River Nature2000 site", Romania

Abstract

River erosion is a complex process due to multiple factors, such as climate changes, discharge quantity, the type of transported sediments, and variations in the hydrological regime. This paper aims to analyse river erosion's impact on transport elements' stability (especially on bridges). To do so, a Geomorphic Change Detection analysis was used, which involves calculating the altitude differences between two successive digital models, as a basis for calculating surfaces and volumes of sediments displaced through the erosion process. This analysis was doubled by a series of cross-sections in the proximity of bridges to observe the current river bed configuration and identify the active processes. The variation of these processes is directly dependent on human interventions undertaken to reduce the erosion process and to protect the infrastructure elements. The bridges located in the studied area are in different stages of damage by lateral and depth erosion processes, depending on their intensity and the human interventions made to protect these bridges. The least affected are the bridges where complex measures have been taken (construction of bed sills) or the dynamic processes have a low intensity.