RESEARCH PROPOSAL
TITLE: RIVER SYSTEM MANAGEMENT IN AFGHANISTAN BY
INVESTIGATING ITS SEDIMENT TRANSPORT BEHAVIOR
Introduction
Afghanistan, as a land of mountains and desert plains with arid and semi-arid climates, most of the
water is flowing in rivers and natural streams. Water is the major natural resource in Afghanistan.
Flowing rivers constitute about 80% of water potential of the country. The rivers of Afghanistan
are remarkable for their diversity, even as their activity is such a strong agent in the formation of
fluvial landforms, whereas their waters are the critical lifeblood for the Afghan People. All rivers
originated from high mountains, which have steep slopes and due to their fast flowing,
sedimentation and deposition is likely to continuously occur in middle and lower reaches.
Due to water scarcity and damaged water infrastructure systems during long time civil war, water
is a major and important problem in Afghanistan. Afghanistan will not reach to its sustainable
development goals, without substantial improvement in the development and management of its
water resources. The National Development Frame Work (NDF) drafted by the Government of
Afghanistan considers that “river basin management is the best instrument for dealing with the
management of water resources.
Engineering works to canalize major rivers often result in a degradation of ecological habitats and
diversity by modifying the river hydraulics and sediment transport. The movement of sediments
show profound significance to rivers. The process of sediment transport and deposition can change
the topography of the river bed. And the sediment deposition is a key factor to limit the river
development and management. However, ever increasing human activities, such as extensive
damming has increased sediment deposition in the river channel and reservoirs. Take the Kajakai
reservoir as an example, which has formed in 1952. By 2005, sedimentation had likely reduced
the reservoir volume by about 26 percent.
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Problem Statement and Justification
Sedimentation is a complex process that varies with watershed sediment yield, rate of
transportation and mode of deposition. Sediment deposition reduces the storage capacity and life
span of reservoirs as well as river flows. Sedimentation continues to be one of the most important
threats to river eco-systems around the world. The problem of sedimentation will have significant
impacts on the operation lifetime of the reservoir, the flood control capacity and others. On the
other hand, safety of bridges over watercourses can be compromised by flow characteristics and
bridge hydraulics. Scour process around bridge foundations can develop rapidly during low-
recurrence interval floods when structural elements are exposed to increased flows. Variations in
riverbed geometry, as a result of sediment removal and deposition processes, can increase flood-
induced hazard at bridge sites with catastrophic failures and destructive consequences for civil
infrastructure. So it is very important to research the process of sediment transport, and its
significance on environment and river basin management.
Research Objective
The main objective of this research work is to investigate the transport behavior of sediments in
rivers based on laboratory experiment and numerical simulation. This includes not only
sedimentation and erosion process but also the flow and sediment characteristics such as: (i) the
evaluation of erosion stability, (ii) the derivation of initiation of motion, (iii) the measurement of
the vertical velocity profile, and (iv) the time dependent measurement of erosion rates by means
of an optical measuring technique for erosion rate detection. The findings from this study will
improve the general understanding of sediment transport behavior, which are essential for the
management of river systems in Afghanistan.
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Methodology and Approaches
The mechanical and the physical migration are the main mechanisms of sediment transport, and
the transport processes are very complicated. Meanwhile, suspended and bed sediments, which are
transport by the river flows, can cause bed scouring and siltation, and then lead to bed deformation.
Therefore, the hydrodynamic and hydrological conditions, such as water flow velocity, bed
material grade and sediment concentration, are the main factors influencing sediment transport.
Numerical models are becoming increasingly common in simulation of river flow. The one-
dimensional (1D) models are very mature, and can analyze the general changes of flow and
riverbed from a macroscopic view, but cannot simulate the local sediment movement in detail.
Then the two-dimensional (2D) refined models need to be developed to simulate the local riverbed
deformation and sediment deposition process in vertical and horizontal. The refined (2D) models
would represent an improvement in the description of the sediment erosion and deposition in river
system.
Also, the quantification of flood induced hazard on bridge safety generally involves coupled
hydrodynamic and sediment transport models (i.e. 2D numerical or physical models) for a range
of hydrological events covering both high and low flows. However, experimental investigation is
the most promising approaches to be performed for insight of the sediment transport mechanism.
As well, to validate the field measurement results, then there is a need for experimental and
analytical approaches to be performed. As a result, to obtained the objectives a comprehensive
experimental investigation and refined numerical modeling that can realistically describe and
simulate significant sediment erosion and deposition process, is essential to be realized.
Program Schedule and Timeline
In order to achieve the program goals and objective, the following schedule and timeline is
proposed for the duration of three years. This is just a preliminary schedule, which is subject to
change and modification.
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Candidature/ Major Tasks First year Second year Third year
1th term 2nd term 1th term 2nd term 1th term 2nd term
Phase I: Project development
Stat-of-the-art literature review
Get familiar with computer modeling and
measuring techniques
Required ECT Credits
Finalizing & submitting research proposal
Phase II: Experimental & Analytical investigations
Conducting experimental module
Developing numerical modeling
Confirmation to mid-candidature review
Phase III: Completion
Thesis writing
Thesis review to submission
References:
1- H. Chang. 2008. Fluvial process in river engineering, San Diego State university, USA.
2- K. Matthew & S. Benjamin. 2010. Making the Most of Afghanistan’s River Basins
Opportunities for Regional Cooperation, East west institute, USA.
3- S. Wahidullah, P. Vishnu & K. Ruchi. 2017. Simulation for sedimentation assessment a case
study of Kunar river in Afghanistan. International Journal of Advanced research.
4- Q. Asad Sarwar. 2002. Water resource management in Afghanistan: the issues and options.
International water resource management institute. Future harvest publishing.
5- H. Habibullah. 2014. Water related problems in Afghanistan. International Journal of
educational studies. ESci publishing.
6- Zhang, Yanhong Xu, Yanru Wang, and Hong Peng. 2014. Modeling Sediment Transport and
River Bed Evolution in River System, Journal of Clean Energy Technologies, Vol. 2, No. 2.
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