Abstract
IN the Vernon-Harcourt Lecture delivered at the Institution of Civil Engineers on December 8, Dr. Brysson Cunningham discussed “Estuary Channels and Embankments". The two chief objects of the engineering treatment of estuaries are the regulation and improvement of the navigable channel and the protection of adjacent low-lying land from tidal inundation. From the point of view of navigation, defects arise from three main causes: (1) a shifting, unstable channel ; (2) a narrow bed, with inadequate depth of water ; and (3) a bar. In carrying out estuary training works for the removal or amelioration of the first defect, certain principles have to be observed in order to avoid risks and possibilities involved in the confinement of the stream within a definite course. The design of different types of wall was considered by Dr. Cunningham. As regards shallowness of the river bed, the principal remedy, although not of a permanent nature, is dredging by means of floating plant of various types. The cause and origin of bars were next discussed, and the peculiar conditions attached to dredging operations in exposed situations were set out with particulars of some of the latest and largest dredgers engaged on that class of work. Dealing with estuary embankments, Dr. Cunningham pointed out that in the case of the Thames alone, there are more than 40,000 acres of serviceable marshland, utilized for a variety of purposes, which have to be protected at high water in this way, while, in the maritime provinces of Holland, whole districts lie so low as to be permanently below sea-level. The embankments on the Thames, the Trent and at the mouths of the Schelde and the Maas were illustrated and the nature of their construction explained, including the design of sluices for dealing with the drainage of inland water.
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Estuary Channels and Embankments. Nature 140, 1046 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/1401046a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1401046a0