The terms river morphology and its synonym stream morphology are used to describe the shapes of

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

channels Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

and how they change in shape and direction over time. The morphology of a river channel is a function of a number of processes and environmental conditions, including the composition and

erodibility Erodability (or erodibility) is the inherent yielding or nonresistance of soils and rocks to erosion. A high erodability implies that the same amount of work exerted by the erosion processes leads to a larger removal of material. Because the mechani ...

of the

bed A bed is an item of furniture that is used as a place to sleep, rest, and relax. Most modern beds consist of a soft, cushioned mattress on a bed frame. The mattress rests either on a solid base, often wood slats, or a sprung base. Many beds ...

and

banks A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becaus ...

(e.g., sand, clay, bedrock);

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is dis ...

comes from the power and consistency of the current, and can effect the formation of the river's path. Also,

vegetation Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characte ...

and the rate of plant growth; the availability of

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...

; the size and composition of the sediment moving through the channel; the rate of sediment transport through the channel and the rate of deposition on the

floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

, banks, bars, and bed; and regional

aggradation Aggradation (or alluviation) is the term used in geology for the increase in land elevation, typically in a river system, due to the deposition of sediment. Aggradation occurs in areas in which the supply of sediment is greater than the amount of ...

degradation Degradation may refer to: Science * Degradation (geology), lowering of a fluvial surface by erosion * Degradation (telecommunications), of an electronic signal * Biodegradation of organic substances by living organisms * Environmental degradatio ...

due to subsidence or uplift. River morphology can also be affected by human interaction, which is a way the river responds to a new factor in how the river can change its course. An example of human induced change in river morphology is dam construction, which alters the ebb flow of fluvial water and sediment, therefore creating or shrinking estuarine channels.Bo-yuan Zhu,Yi-tian Li,Yao Yue,Yun-ping Yang. Aggravation of north channels' shrinkage and south channels' development in the Yangtze Estuary under dam-induced runoff discharge flattening. Journal Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science. 5 March 2017 A

river regime The river regime generally describes the character of the typical fluctuations of flow of a river, but can also refer to the mathematical relationship between the river discharge and its width, depth and slope. Thus, "river regime" can describe one ...

is a dynamic equilibrium system, which is a way of classifying rivers into different categories. The four categories of river regimes are Sinuous canali- form rivers, Sinuous point bar rivers, Sinuous braided rivers, and Non-sinuous braided rivers. The study of river morphology is accomplished in the field of fluvial geomorphology, the scientific term.

References

*Rosgen, Dave (1996). ''Applied River Morphology.'' 2nd ed. (Fort Collins, CO
Wildland Hydrology
publ.) . *Brice J C. Planform properties of meandering rivers River Meandering, Proceedings of the October 24–26, 1983 Rivers '83 Conference, ASCE. New Orleans, Louisi- ana, 1983. 1-15.

External links

River Morphology at Delft University of TechnologyRiver morphology in Delft Cluster
{{Authority control Rivers Hydraulic engineering Water streams Geomorphology Sedimentology Fluvial landforms

See also

References

External links