Segmentation of a river using the Saint Venant equations

The Saint Venant equations are widely used for modelling river systems for scenario simulations, flow prediction, control design, etc. In order to represent a river using the Saint Venant equations, the river is usually divided into segments which are stretches where the river geometry and the friction are assumed constant. This lead to the question of how a river should be segmented, considering that the geometries of a river can vary considerably along a reach. In this paper, we present segmentation studies of rivers using the Saint Venant equations. Simulation studies show that a few segments are sufficient for representing the river with good accuracy. The findings are validated using operational data from the Broken and the Murray Rivers in Australia. The findings are useful as they justify the use of only a few segments which leads to relatively simple simulation models. © 2010 IEEE.