Multibeam surveying of river bed form and bed-load estimation at medium flow condition in a large sand river: Preliminary results of a field study in Po river

The paper refers to a field study of river bed pattern in a large sand river (i.e Po river in Italy) at medium flow condition during two bathymetric measurement campaigns. The selected straigth reach extends overall 2.6 km. Within the reach a representative large area of active bed (more than 0.1 km wide and 0.65 km long) was surveyed with a Multibeam Echo Sounder (MBES) during two different flow condition (19th June and 7th July 2014). In each campaign the survey was repeated at different subsequent time in order to derive bed form kinematics. Bed form pattern was analyzed and different geometrical approaches were applied to estimate bed-form sediment transport component. Results are compared with standard sediment transport formula.