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

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

channels 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 erodibility implies that the same amount of work exerted by the erosion processes leads to a larger removal of material. Because the mechan ...

of the bed 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. As banks ...

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

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

comes from the power and consistency of the current, and can affect the formation of the river's path. It also can be affected by

vegetation Vegetation is an assemblage of plants and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular Taxon, taxa, life forms, structure, Spatial ecology, spatial extent, or any other specific Botany, botanic ...

and the rate of plant growth; the availability of

sediment Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...

; the size and composition of the sediment moving through the channel; the rate of

sediment transport Sediment transport is the movement of solid particles (sediment), typically due to a combination of gravity acting on the sediment, and the movement of the fluid in which the sediment is entrained. Sediment transport occurs in natural systems wh ...

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. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high Discharge (hydrolog ...

, 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 o ...

or degradation due to

subsidence Subsidence is a general term for downward vertical movement of the Earth's surface, which can be caused by both natural processes and human activities. Subsidence involves little or no horizontal movement, which distinguishes it from slope mov ...

or uplift. River morphology can also be affected by human interaction. 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 An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

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 In hydrology, discharge is the volumetric flow rate (volume per time, in units of m3/h or ft3/h) of a stream. It equals the product of average flow velocity (with dimension of length per time, in m/h or ft/h) and the cross-sectional area (in m ...

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 A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it ru ...

geomorphology Geomorphology () is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features generated by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near Earth's surface. Geomorphologists seek to understand wh ...

, 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