Morphological changes of river due to construction of a port at Baan Paeng, Nakorn Panom

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze fluvial process and evaluate the impact of a portconstruction on river by using quasi-two-dimensional GSTARS 2.1 that can simulate the lateralchange or river bank failure. The study emphasizes the quantitative influence of construction of theport which obstructs or diverts the flow direction. Furthermore, it shows the efficiency and applicationof the mathematical model on river engineering especially on the cases that have limited data. Theselected case study is the project for surveying and the design of a port at the Mekong River, AmphorBaan Paeng, Nakorn Panom Province. The data of 19 river cross-sections, discharge of water,maximum level of water in 2002 and minimum level of water in 1992 with 20 return periods wereused. The results show that the port does not severely affects the changing of the thalweg and thebank of the Mekong River at the project location and nearby areas. Moreover, the scouring or failureof river bank was found to be reduced at some river cross-sections.