Assessment of hydro-morphodynamic modelling and geomorphological impacts of a sediment-charged jökulhlaup, at Sólheimajökull, Iceland

Understanding of complex flood-riverbed interaction processes in large-scale (field) outburst floods remains incomplete, not least due to a lack of well-constrained field data on hydraulics and sediment transport, but also because consensus on an appropriate model framework has yet to be agreed. This study presents a novel full 2D hydro-morphodynamic model containing both bedload and suspended load capability. Firstly, the model design is presented with an emphasis on its design to simulate rapidly-varied sediment-laden outburst floods and also the associated geomorphological impacts. Secondly, the model is applied to a large-scale (field) glacier outburst flood or 'jökulhlaup' at Sólheimajökull, Iceland. For this real-world event, model scenarios with only water and with inclusion of sediment with different parameter setups were performed. Results indicated that grain size specifications affected resultant geomorphological changes, but that the sensitivity of the simulated riverbed changes to the empirical bedload transport formulae were insignificant. Notably, a positive feedback occurred whereby the jökulhlaup led to significant net erosion of the riverbed, producing an increase in flow conveyance capacity of the river channel. Furthermore, bulking effects of sediment entrainment raised the peak discharge progressively downstream, as well as the flood volume. Effects of geomorphological changes on flood water level and flow velocity were significant. Overall, despite the increased computational effort required with inclusion of sediment transport processes, this study shows that river morphological changes cannot be ignored for events with significant in-channel erosion and deposition, such as during outburst floods.