Comparison of Analytical and Modeling solutions of the hydrodynamic behavior of drainage channels covered by reed beds

The purpose of this work is the validation of modeled turbulent features induced by hydrodynamic interaction between water flow motion and rigid emergent reed beds obtained by employing both analytical and Shallow-waters approaches. The experimental dataset employed for the validation was collected during three hydraulic experiments performed in a vegetated reclamation channel under three different scenarios of riparian vegetation management: one discharge for (1) vegetation in total abandonment, with infesting reed beds in natural conditions, and two discharges for (2) central riparian vegetation cleaning, with the presence of two side buffers of reed beds in undisturbed conditions. In particular, Reynolds shear stresses and Turbulent Kinetic Energy were computed based on the values of measured water flow velocity acquired by an acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV), located at the vegetated channel’s upstream cross-section. The preliminary results of the present work embody a useful tool for the prediction of the effects of riparian vegetation in vegetated reclamation channels colonized by such riparian species at real scale.