GPR Assessment of The Channel Capacity on Congestion Sections of Rivers in The Pre-Spring Period

Abstract

Summary On most rivers of Russia, during opening, ice jams are formed annually, which reduce the throughput of the channel, accompanied by a rapid increase in water level rises, leading to dangerous floods. To predict the formation of ice jams, information is needed on the thickness of the ice and the relief of the channel, on which the process of moving ice plates along the river during the spring flood depends. At present, the GPR method allows obtaining information about the thickness of the ice, the structure of the ice cover, the morphometry of the channel and the thickness of bottom sediments. For the study of the ice situation on the Lena River in the alignment of the Tabaga hydrological station, the method of complex GPR studies of the river channel in the summer and the ice cover of the river at the end of freeze up was applied. As a result, a cross-sectional profile of the river channel was obtained, in which the ice cover was in contact with the sandy sediment. This contact of ice with sediment can be a potential obstacle to the advancement of spring floods or a source of spring ice jam formation.