Geomorphology alteration effects over Kävlinge River Basin

Sammanfattning: This thesis focuses on the case study over the Kävlinge catchment located in the south of Sweden, and mainly in the Kävlinge river. This river, which is the mainstream of the catchment, has been subject to modifications due to agricultural activities. Such modifications, like straightening or increasing the depth and channeling sections of the river, will affect the river’s hydrodynamics. These interventions are often made to reduce the impacts of fluvial floods in the presence of extreme rainfall events. Such floods can be expected to occur more frequently in the future because of climate change. However, these modifications may also affect soil erosion and can have other adverse effects on the river ecosystem. This work will use a physics-based hydrological model to simulate the hydrodynamics conditions of the river and the basin, along with the effects of river straightening. These are compared with the modeling of the original river course. This study is a starting point for further analysis and research aimed at improving the ecological conditions of the Kävlinge river basin. After running the simulations, the models show a decrease in the water level of 0.02 m and a discharge peak reduction of 2 m3/s and a delay in the presence of the Max. water level. Furthermore, the results of a second model simulation using cross-sections generated using the elevation values, show the same tendency and showing a clearer effect of meander over the fluvial floods in sections downstream.