Effects of Vegetation on Open Channel Flow and Sediment Transport
A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Hydraulics and Hydrodynamics".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 December 2025 | Viewed by 361
Special Issue Editors
Interests: environmental hydraulics; solute and sediment transport; computational fluid dynamics; numerical simulation; fluvial hydraulics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Aquatic vegetation profoundly influences hydrodynamic processes and sediment dynamics in open channels, shaping river morphology, ecological habitats, and sediment transport efficiency. Vegetation alters flow resistance, turbulence characteristics, and bed shear stress while modulating sediment deposition, resuspension, and nutrient retention via complex flow–vegetation interactions. These effects vary with vegetation density, flexibility, and spatial arrangement, resulting in heterogeneous velocity profiles, enhanced turbulence kinetic energy, and modified sediment transport pathways.
Recent advances in numerical methods—including large-eddy simulations, lattice Boltzmann models, and Lagrangian particle tracking—have enabled high-fidelity investigations of vegetation–flow–sediment interactions, resolving instantaneous turbulence and particle clustering mechanisms. Experimental studies further demonstrate vegetation's role in stabilizing riverbeds, mitigating erosion and enhancing ecological resilience. Nevertheless, challenges remain in modelling non-equilibrium sediment transport, vegetation-induced turbulence scaling, and multi-phase flow dynamics.
This Special Issue invites contributions addressing vegetation impacts on open channel hydraulics and sediment processes, including but not limited to, the following: turbulence–vegetation–sediment coupling mechanisms; numerical and experimental methods for resolving vegetated flows; sediment transport under unsteady or heterogeneous vegetation conditions; ecological implications of vegetation-mediated flow and morphodynamics; and applications in river restoration, flood management, and sustainable engineering.
Dr. Mengyang Liu
Dr. Yanxu Wang
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- aquatic vegetation
- sediment transport
- vegetation–flow–sediment interaction
- turbulence
- eco-hydraulics
- open channel flow
- river morphology
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
