Coherent Flow Structures at Earths Surface

The interaction between flow structure, mobile sediment and surface morphology has become of central importance in understanding the dynamics of the Earth’s surface. Additionally, managing such flows is a key component of sustainable engineering design/ construction as well as in the maintenance of ecological habitats. All such flows, in both the atmosphere and in water, and in environments ranging from deserts to rivers to the oceans, are structured across a wide range of spatio–temporal scales, from small–scale turbulent vortices generated at the bed and responsible for grain–motion, to large–scale circulation patterns that generate geomorphic features visible from space. Coherent Flow Structures at Earth’s Surface brings together researchers working on numerical simulation, laboratory modeling and field observation to study coherent flow structures, their interaction with sediment, vegetation, and benthic communities, the manipulation of such flow structures for managing sedimentary environments, and the key role they play in Earth surface dynamics. Major themes include: dynamics of coherent flow structures (CFS) in geophysical flows, interaction of turbulent flows, vegetation and ecological habitats, coherent structure of atmospheric flows, numerical modeling of coherent flow structures, turbulence in open channel flows, coherent flow structures, sediment transport and morphological feedbacks.

List of Contributors, vii Preface, xi About the Companion Website, xiii 1 What is a Coherent Flow Structure in Geophysical Flow? 1 Jeremy G. Venditti, Richard J. Hardy, Michael Church, & James L. Best 2 Structure of Turbulent Boundary Layers 17 Ronald J. Adrian 3 Structural Attributes of Turbulent Flow over a Complex Topography 25 Ricardo Mejia–Alvarez, Julio M. Barros, & Kenneth T. Christensen 4 Coherent Flow Structures in the Pore Spaces of Permeable Beds underlying a Unidirectional Turbulent Boundary Layer: A Review and some New Experimental Results 43 Gianluca Blois, James L. Best, Kenneth T. Christensen, Richard J. Hardy, & Gregory H. Sambrook Smith 5 Instabilities in Stratified Shear Flow 63 Gregory A. Lawrence, Edmund W. Tedford, & Jeffrey R. Carpenter 6 Scalar Turbulence within the Canopy Sublayer 73 Gabriel G. Katul, Daniela Cava, Mario Siqueira, & Davide Poggi 7 On the Structure of Wall Turbulence in the Thermally Neutral Atmospheric Surface Layer 97 Michele Guala, Jeff LeHew, Meredith Metzger, & Beverley J. McKeon 8 Critical Reflections on the Coherent Flow Structures Paradigm in Aeolian Geomorphology 111 Bernard O. Bauer, Ian J. Walker, Andreas C.W. Baas, Derek W.T. Jackson, Cheryl McKenna Neuman, Giles F.S. Wiggs, & Patrick A. Hesp 9 Coherent Flow Structures in Vegetated Channels 135 Heidi Nepf, Jeffrey Rominger, & Lijun Zong 10 Coherent Eddy Structures over Plant Canopies 149 Roger H. Shaw, Edward G. Patton, & John J. Finnigan 11 SPIV Analysis of Coherent Structures in a Vegetation Canopy Model Flow 161 Laurent Perret & Tony Ruiz