Study on bed topography and Vessel's Payload South-East Asia Case Study

Abstract

The natural hydrology has decisive influence on waterways in South-East Asia. Many rivers in the region take meandering courses in their low reaches. The natural bed topography with alternative bar of the meandering rivers was considered from the navigation point of view. The Ikeda and Nishimura's mathematical model (1986) was applied to define the lateral bed topography in three case studies for Irrawaddy river, Chao Phraya river and Mekong river. It was found that the water level available for navigation in dry season could not afford to full load of the operating vessels. The payload of operating vessels over the year before and after local dredging has been predicted.