Experimental Assessment of Vegetation Density and Orientation Effects on Flood-Induced Pressure Forces and Structural Accelerations

Qadir, Imran; Ahmed, Afzal; Ghumman, Abdul Razzaq; Valyrakis, Manousos; Mehboob, Syed Saqib; Pasha, Ghufran Ahmed; Abbas, Fakhar Muhammad; Qadir, Irfan

doi:10.3390/w17192879

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Experimental Assessment of Vegetation Density and Orientation Effects on Flood-Induced Pressure Forces and Structural Accelerations

by

Imran Qadir

¹,

Afzal Ahmed

^1,*

,

Abdul Razzaq Ghumman

²

,

Manousos Valyrakis

^3,*

,

Syed Saqib Mehboob

¹

,

Ghufran Ahmed Pasha

¹

,

Fakhar Muhammad Abbas

⁴

and

Irfan Qadir

⁵

¹

Department of Civil Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology Taxila, Rawalpindi 47080, Pakistan

²

Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Qassim University, Al-Mulida 51431, Saudi Arabia

³

Department of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

⁴

Department of Civil Engineering, Comsats University Islamabad, Abbottabad Campus, Abbottabad 22060, Pakistan

⁵

Multan Electric Power Company, Water and Power Development Authority, Lahore 54000, Pakistan

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Water 2025, 17(19), 2879; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17192879

Submission received: 28 August 2025 / Revised: 27 September 2025 / Accepted: 30 September 2025 / Published: 2 October 2025

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancing Hydro-Environmental Research and Practice: Integrating Ecohydrology, Remote Sensing and Hydroinformatics)

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Abstract

This study aims to assess the effect of vegetation angle and density on hydrostatic pressure and acceleration of a downstream house model experimentally. The vegetation cylinders were positioned at angles 30°, 45°, 60° and 90° with respect to the flow and two densities of vegetation conditions, i.e., sparse (G/d = 2.13) and intermediate (G/d = 1.09), where G is the spacing between the model vegetation elements in the cross-stream di-rection and d is the vegetation diameter. The streamwise acceleration of the house model was measured by an X2-2 accelerometer that was located downstream from the vegetation patches. Results show that the perpendicular orientation of the vegetation patch (90°) most effectively reduces hydrodynamic loads, with intermediate density (I90) achieving the highest reductions, i.e., 22.1% for acceleration and 7.4% for pressure impacts. Even sparse vegetation (S90) provided substantial protection, reducing acceleration by 21.9% and pressure by 5.8%. These findings highlight the importance of integrating vegetation density and orientation into flood management designs to enhance both their performance and reliability under varying hydraulic conditions.

Keywords: climate change; flood mitigation; vegetation array; flow-induced pressure; acceleration; floodwater arrival time

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MDPI and ACS Style

Qadir, I.; Ahmed, A.; Ghumman, A.R.; Valyrakis, M.; Mehboob, S.S.; Pasha, G.A.; Abbas, F.M.; Qadir, I. Experimental Assessment of Vegetation Density and Orientation Effects on Flood-Induced Pressure Forces and Structural Accelerations. Water 2025, 17, 2879. https://doi.org/10.3390/w17192879

AMA Style

Qadir I, Ahmed A, Ghumman AR, Valyrakis M, Mehboob SS, Pasha GA, Abbas FM, Qadir I. Experimental Assessment of Vegetation Density and Orientation Effects on Flood-Induced Pressure Forces and Structural Accelerations. Water. 2025; 17(19):2879. https://doi.org/10.3390/w17192879

Chicago/Turabian Style

Qadir, Imran, Afzal Ahmed, Abdul Razzaq Ghumman, Manousos Valyrakis, Syed Saqib Mehboob, Ghufran Ahmed Pasha, Fakhar Muhammad Abbas, and Irfan Qadir. 2025. "Experimental Assessment of Vegetation Density and Orientation Effects on Flood-Induced Pressure Forces and Structural Accelerations" Water 17, no. 19: 2879. https://doi.org/10.3390/w17192879

APA Style

Qadir, I., Ahmed, A., Ghumman, A. R., Valyrakis, M., Mehboob, S. S., Pasha, G. A., Abbas, F. M., & Qadir, I. (2025). Experimental Assessment of Vegetation Density and Orientation Effects on Flood-Induced Pressure Forces and Structural Accelerations. Water, 17(19), 2879. https://doi.org/10.3390/w17192879

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Experimental Assessment of Vegetation Density and Orientation Effects on Flood-Induced Pressure Forces and Structural Accelerations

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