Coherent Flow Structures at Earth's Surface

The interaction between flow structure, mobile sediment and surface morphology has become of central importance in understanding the dynamics of the Earth’s surface. Additionally, managing such flows is a key component of sustainable engineering design/ construction as well as in the maintenance of ecological habitats. All such flows, in both the atmosphere and in water, and in environments ranging from deserts to rivers to the oceans, are structured across a wide range of spatio-temporal scales, from small-scale turbulent vortices generated at the bed and responsible for grain-motion, to large-scale circulation patterns that generate geomorphic features visible from space.

Coherent Flow Structures at Earth’s Surface brings together researchers working on numerical simulation, laboratory modeling and field observation to study coherent flow structures, their interaction with sediment, vegetation, and benthic communities, the manipulation of such flow structures for managing sedimentary environments, and the key role they play in Earth surface dynamics.

Major themes include:

• dynamics of coherent flow structures (CFS) in geophysical flows,
• interaction of turbulent flows, vegetation and ecological habitats,
• coherent structure of atmospheric flows,
• numerical modeling of coherent flow structures,
• turbulence in open channel flows,
• coherent flow structures, sediment transport and morphological feedbacks.