RSM River Mechanics Podcast

Gary Parker on Gravel Bed Rivers

Dr. Gary Parker is one of the defining figures in modern river mechanics and sediment transport. He's a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois or Urbana Ch

Floodplain Sedimentation Pannel with Desiree Tullos, Janine Castro, and Jon Czuba

About a year ago an interdisciplinary tam at Oregon State invited a collection of subject matter experts for workshop on floodplain sedimentation processes.   The worksh

Bill Dietrich on Meander Mechanics, Hillslopes, and Where Rivers Begin

Over his career Dr. Bill Dietrich has had an outsized influence on both the discipline of geomorphology and the community that surrounds the discipline.  He is Professor

Cohesive Sediment Properties and Processes with David Perkey, Jarrell Smith and Danielle Tarpley

So far on this podcast we've generally used the noun "sediment" to describe sand, gravel, and maybe cobbles and boulders. But the same word also gets used for silts,

Mike Spoor on the Ohio River, Bank Failure, Glacial and Coal Mining Sediment Legacies...and 60 Years Working with Rivers

I only know one person who can claim >60 years of federal service.  This episode's guest, Mike Spoor.  Mike spent those years with the US Army Corps of Engineers Hun

David Topping on the Grand Canyon Prototype Experiments, Disequilibrium Transport, and Hysteresis

Dr. David Topping is a Research Hydrologist with the US Geological Survey. He did his undergrad at MIT, a masters and Phd at the University of Washington and has publish

Rob Ettema on River Ice, Ice-Sediment Interactions, and Sediment Scientist Biographies

I grew up in one of North America’s great snow belts…and started my career in Buffalo NY So, that background and my fascination with sediment transport primes curiosity i

Pierre Julien on Bed Forms, High Concentration Flow, and Engineering Rules of Thumb

Dr. Pierre Julien joined the Colorado State faculty almost 40 years ago, where he worked at CSU’s Engineering Research Center and Hydraulics laboratory.  His book, Erosi

Ellen Wohl on World Rivers, River Restoration, and the Dimensions of Fluvial Connectivity

We’re kicking this season off with one of the most prolific researchers in River Science.  Dr. Ellen Wohl is a Fluvial Geomorphologist at Colorado State’s Warner College

"Ask an Editor" with Amy East (Bonus short)

The peer review process can feel like hazing to a new (or not-so-new) river scientist.  Many excellent practitioners are learning from their rivers every day, but it can

Peter Wilcock on Gravel Bed Rivers, Partial Transport, Armor Layer Persistence and Channel Design (Plus Wilcock & Crowe)

When HEC hired me to add sediment transport to HEC-RAS almost 20 years ago now, I inherited a set of sediment transport functions that were mostly developed in the early

Mary Power on River Ecology, Disturbance, and Inverted Pyramids

t Dr. Power is a food web ecologist at UC Berkeley, where she leads the Power lab which has compiled careful, long term data sets in the Angelo Reserve in Northern CA.

Alain Recking on Sediment Sorting, Transport, and Relative Roughness in Mountain Rivers

Dr Alain Recking has quantified gravel bed transport with just about all the tools available to our discipline. In addition to substantial field work- Dr. Recking has do

Sediment Modeling Failure Modes and Best Practices with Four Model Developers

A couple years ago, my agency asked me to write some guidance on sediment modeling, so, I reached out to the morphological modelers I knew, and particularly the model dev

Tony Thomas on the Origin of Sediment Modeling and Insights from >55 Years of Sediment Studies

I’ve heard people call Tony the godfather of Sediment Transport Modeling and - as you’ll hear in our conversation - he very well may be the first person to use a computer

Jim Selegean and the "Classic Paper Draft"

Dr. Jim Selegean is the Sediment Transport Specialist at the Corps Detroit District where he studies the rivers and sediment loads into the great lakes as well as inland

Astrid Blom on Incision on the Rhine, Gravel-Sand Transitions, and Vertical Bedform Sorting

Dr. Astrid Blom is a professor Civil Engineering & Geosciences at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands is perhaps best known for her recent reach and rive sc

Marcello Garcia (part 2) on Sedimentation Hazards, the Bulle Effect, and Transport Paradigms

In the previous episode, we talked to Dr. Marcelo Garcia about the astonishing compilation of sediment science he edited, the ASCE Sedimentation Manual.    In this episo

Marcelo Garcia Shares Some Sediment Stories and Discusses Manual of Practice 110

Dr. Marcelo Garcia holds an endowed chair in Hydraulics at the University of Illinois-Urbana – where he has taught for more than thirty years, and runs the remarkable Ven

David Montgomery on High Gradient River Mechanics (Classification, Incipient Motion, and Wood) and Sediment Impacts on Human History

Dr. David Montgomery has been so prolific, that for several years I actually thought he was two people: First, Dr. D. Montgomery is a well known geomorphologist from the