FANG Hongwei, HE Guojian, HUANG Lei, LIU Yan, HAN Xu and ZHAO Chenwei

Abstract: The construction and operation of large-scale hydraulic projects cause significant changes in the hydrodynamics and sediment transport in the rivers and lakes, which not only bring about riverbed evolution, but also variations in the interactions among water, sediment and nutrients/pollutants. Accordingly, the bed biofilms, phytoplankton/zooplankton, zoobenthos and aquatic plants in the aqueous environment are also changed. In this paper, the concept and theoretical framework of Eco-fluvial Dynamics are proposed, and the relevant research progresses are reviewed, including the physical processes of turbulence, sediment transport and micro-morphology, chemical processes of nutrients and pollutants transport, and the responses of biological processes in the water and at the bed surface. The coupling between the fluvial dynamics and biological/chemical processes are discussed, and the challenges of multi-disciplinary and multi-scale faced by the study of Eco-fluvial Dynamics are further proposed.

Key words: Eco-fluvial Dynamics; sediment transport; biological and chemical processes; interactions