River Features

I INTRODUCTION

River Features, elements of the landscape produced by fluvial processes—that is, the
action of running water as it flows through the channels forming the drainage network of a
river basin, eroding, transporting, and depositing sediment. The term “river” is used for
convenience throughout this article, but it is important to remember that fluvial processes
affect all drainage channels regardless of size—from the smallest streamlet to the world’s
mightiest rivers. In fact, although the effects upon the landscape of large rivers tend to be
the most dramatic, it is from detailed studies of small streams that much of our knowledge
of fluvial processes has been gained.

All rivers consist of a flow both of water and of sediment—materials derived from
rock and organic matter that can vary in size from fine clay particles to huge boulders.
The features produced by a particular river thus depend not only on the characteristics
of the water flow, notably its volume (discharge), distribution over time, and energy,
but also on the amount and size of the sediment load (sediment discharge). The third
contributory factor is the geology of the basin, which helps condition the type and
amount of sediment, and also affects the amount of work a river has to do and the
features that result, because some rocks are more resistant than others.

II RIVER PROCESSES

The primary processes responsible for the formation and evolution of rivers and their
features are erosion, and sediment transport and deposition. Rivers are able to do work on
the landscape because the energy stored in the water, or potential energy, is translated as
it flows downhill owing to gravity into the kinetic energy used for erosion, transport, and
deposition. The amount of potential energy available to a river is proportional to its initial
height above sea level. In order to minimize the loss of potential energy to thermal energy,
or heat, as a result of friction, and thus maximize available kinetic energy, the river follows
the path of least resistance downhill. Even so, it is estimated that 95 per cent of a river’s
potential energy is used to overcome friction, which occurs mainly along the channel
boundaries (the bed and banks), although the internal friction of the water and air
resistance on the surface are also important.

There are two main patterns of flow: laminar and turbulent. Laminar flow is an even,
horizontal movement, in which the water flows in clearly defined layers over
sediment on the bed without moving it. Laminar flow is considered to exist in rivers
more in theory than in reality and is usually discounted. Turbulent flow, the dominant
pattern, consists of a series of erratic vertical and horizontal eddies moving in a
downstream direction. Turbulence varies in direct relation to the velocity of flow,
which in turn is linked to the amount of kinetic energy available. The greater the
kinetic energy, the greater the velocity (and vice versa), and the greater the turbulence
of flow.
A Erosion

Erosion is the means by which a river deepens, widens, and lengthens its channel. There
are several main erosional processes.

Hydraulic action occurs because the energy of the flowing water hitting the boundaries of
the river channel, especially the banks, is sufficient to prise away fragments of the
bedrock. This hydraulic shearing force is caused by the fact that water is forced into cracks
in the bedrock. The air in the cracks is compressed and, as a result, pressure increases.
Over time this weakens the rock and fragments break away. An extreme form of hydraulic
action, associated with waterfalls and rapids, is cavitation. It is caused by air bubbles
collapsing. The resulting shock waves hit and weaken the channel boundaries, and may
eventually cause the banks to collapse. Hydraulic action is measured in terms of shear
force per unit area, which is termed the boundary shear stress. As well as eroding
fragments of intact bedrock, the river may also erode loose particles—variously termed
scree, talus, or colluvium—that have accumulated at the base of slopes after being
detached from the bedrock by weathering processes such as freeze-thaw, the growth of
salt crystals, or the actions of plants and animals. This process is termed sediment
entrainment.

The efficacy of flowing water in erosion is greatly assisted by the battering effect
against the bedrock of the channel of sediment already in motion, a process called
corrasion. Corrasion is responsible for much of the downcutting that creates and
deepens the channel, and is most effective in times of flood. A particular form,
potholing, occurs when pebbles or other sediment are trapped in hollows in the bed
and are swirled around by turbulent eddies, scouring out and deepening the
depression. It is not only the channel that is worn away by this process; the sediment
load is itself abraded by collisions between individual particles and between particles
and the channel boundaries. This process, sometimes called attrition, reduces the size
of transported particles with distance downstream and also gives them the rounded
shapes typical of river cobbles and pebbles. Finally, water is also a strong solvent.
Many rocks can be eroded by being dissolved by water, a process known as corrosion,
or solution. Limestone and chalk are particularly susceptible to corrosion, but many
chemical compounds are soluble, particularly in their weathered state, so a wide range
of rocks may be vulnerable.

B Transport

Eroded material is carried downstream by the river, together with sediment that is washed
into the channel by overland flow, or surface run-off—the flow across the land surface of
water that accumulates when rainfall exceeds the capacity of the soil to absorb it—as the
total sediment load. The total load can be subdivided on the basis of its origin, into three
categories. Dissolved load is the sediment load derived from corrosion and chemical
weathering. Wash load is the sediment washed into the channel by overland flow. It is
much finer than that found on the channel bed. Third, bed-material load comprises
sediment eroded from the channel boundaries and is similar in size to the bed material.

The mechanics and speed of movement of sediment making up the total load vary
depending on the size of the particles. The movement of dissolved-load sediment
corresponds to that of the water it is dissolved in. The wash load and the finer particles of
the bed-material load are mixed with the water by turbulent eddies caused by shearing
between the water and the channel boundaries. These eddies carry silt- and fine-sand-size
particles above the bed of the river for long distances as suspended load. However, larger
particles—coarse sands, gravels, cobbles, and boulders—are too heavy to be lifted by
turbulence, and they slide, roll, and bounce (or saltate) along the bottom as bed load. The
largest cobbles and boulders may be moved only during times of flood. The proportions of
sediment moved by different mechanisms vary enormously between rivers, and can also
vary within the same river at different times, such as during a flood. However, as a general
rule, the suspended load constitutes between 70 per cent and 85 per cent of the total
sediment load.

There is a strong relationship between the velocity of flow in the river, the boundary shear
stress, and the size of particles eroded, transported, or deposited. In the early 1930s the
Swedish scientist Filip Hjulström carried out experiments to define the velocities necessary
to initiate the movement (or erosion), transport, and deposition of sediment of different
sizes. Hjulström presented his results in 1935 as a graph showing the relationship between
velocity (y-axis) and sediment diameter (x-axis) in the form of two curves: one plotting the
critical erosion (or entrainment) velocity—that is, the velocity at which particles of a given
size can be eroded from a bed of loose sediment and movement thus initiated; the second
plotting the critical fall, or settling, velocity at which deposition is initiated. Between them
transport will occur; Hjulström found that, once in motion, particles do not require such
high velocities to continue being moved. The critical erosion velocity is lowest for sand-size
particles. Higher velocities are necessary to entrain both finer and coarser sediment
particles. Finer particles, such as silt and clay, require a greater critical velocity to get them
moving because of their cohesive nature; in other words, they stick together better. For
coarser sediments such as gravel, pebbles, and cobbles the higher critical velocity is purely
a result of their greater weight.

The maximum size of particles transportable by a river is called its competence. A river’s
competence is related to both boundary shear stress and velocity. Maximum particle size
increases in a direct linear fashion with increases in boundary shear stress. However, the
relationship between increases in velocity and increases in particle size is governed by the
so-called sixth-power law. According to this, whatever factor the velocity increases by, then
the mass of the largest particle is that factor multiplied to the power six. For example, if
the river’s velocity increases by a factor of four then the mass of the largest particle that
could be moved would increase by 46, or 4,096 times. These relationships can be used to
define the competence of a river for a given boundary shear stress or critical velocity.
C Deposition

Where the velocity and boundary shear stress decrease, the river no longer has the
competence to continue carrying all of its load and begins to deposit it. Deposition occurs
in various situations: some are related to characteristic changes in the channel; others are
a result of specific local conditions. Examples of the former include deposition where a river
broadens out, usually in its middle and lower course. This occurs, assuming the discharge
remains constant, because more of the water comes into contact with the channel
boundaries, increasing friction and thus reducing velocity to the critical-fall threshold for
certain particle sizes. Velocity is also decreased on the inside of river bends, or meanders,
where the water is shallowest, and where a river enters the sea or a lake. Localized causes
of deposition include a sudden decrease in slope, such as below a waterfall or where a river
emerges from a mountain zone on to a plain, and a sudden increase in load, such as after a
landslide. Hjulström’s critical-fall curve indicates the velocity at which particles of different
sizes will begin to be deposited. The heaviest bed-load material is deposited first. Its weight
means that it does not travel far, except during severe floods, which is why the channels of
mountain streams are often filled with boulders. Smaller bed-load material and the
coarsest sediment of the suspended load are deposited next, to form bars on the bed of
the channel. Bars are ridge-like features that are larger than ripples. They occur in various
forms and are categorized in different ways, which can sometimes be confusing because
different names are given to the same feature. There are three main types of
categorization: by shape, by orientation with respect to the current, and by position in the
channel. Examples from the three types are: cuspate and lunate bars (shape); longitudinal
and transverse bars (orientation); and medial and side bars (position). One of the best-
known forms of bar, because it tends to be exposed rather than submerged, as is normally
the case, is the point bar, which forms against the inside bank of bends. Because of their
physical similarities to certain aeolian features, large submerged forms are sometimes also
called dunes. Finer sediment travels the furthest and is usually deposited in backwater
areas and at the inside edges of the channel, where velocities are lowest, to form ripples
and narrow ledges (berms). The material produced by deposition of the river’s sediment
load is called alluvium.

The fact that finer sediment travels faster and further than coarser sediment leads to
hydraulic sorting by particle size in the downstream direction. Most rivers display
downstream fining with bed-material size grading from boulders in the headwaters to
gravel in the middle course, and sand in the lower course. A particular example of
hydraulic sorting occurs when selective removal of the finer particles from a bed of
particles of mixed sizes leaves the larger ones as a coarse surface layer, called an
armour layer, in gravel-bed rivers. As Hjulström demonstrated, once in motion, the
critical velocity required to maintain the very finest sediments (silts and clays) in
suspension is practically zero. For fine silts and clays to be deposited it is necessary,
therefore, that the particles stick together to form larger aggregates called flocs. The
process of flocculation occurs at the very end of the river system, where sediment-
laden river water mixes with saline sea water in an estuary, and velocity reaches its
minimum. This explains why estuaries usually feature prominent mud banks and salt
marshes formed of silts and clays.

III CHANNEL CROSS-SECTION AND LONG PROFILE

The distribution of discharge over time and space defines the flow regime of a river. The
average regime, represented by mean monthly flows, is determined by climatic and
hydrological variables, such as the amount and distribution of precipitation and
temperature, rates of evapotranspiration, and drainage-basin characteristics. Seasonality
of regime can be either simple, expressed as one peak period of flow, or complex, with
several peaks. The river’s regime, together with its underlying geology, and the magnitude
and particle size of the sediment load, determines the size, geometry, and long profile of
the channel. The long, or longitudinal, profile is the channel gradient (slope) expressed
graphically by plotting the distance from source against height above base level. Base level
is the lowest level down to which a river can erode. On a world scale it is sea level, and that
is what is most commonly used in long-profile diagrams. However, there are many more
local forms of base level, such as lake level, or the level at which a tributary stream joins
the main river. In addition, base levels can change because of changes in the height of the
land as a result of tectonic or isostatic processes causing uplift, or because of changes in
sea level as a result of eustatic processes. The long profile of a river is normally concave,
but rarely smooth, being composed of individual segments that are associated with the
existence of local base levels.

A branch of river studies called regime analysis, or theory, attempts to predict channel
form using the links between river processes and resulting channel forms. Such studies
have established the general way in which the variables of flow and channel form change
according to their position on the long profile—that is, their actual location between the
upland source of the river and its downstream base level.

River discharge usually increases with distance downstream because the drainage area of
the basin is greater, and hence so too is the volume of water reaching the channel via
tributaries, surface flow, throughflow, and groundwater flow. This also holds true for the
sediment load, which increases with drainage area even more markedly. The increases in
discharge and sediment load dictate that the size of the channel grows in the downstream
direction; this is achieved through increases in both width and depth. At the same time,
channel roughness and slope decrease with downstream distance. Roughness is a measure
of all the frictional influences causing energy loss in the flow. The prime cause of
roughness is unevenness of the banks and boundaries of a channel, including the size and
shape of any sediment deposits, but other factors also contribute, such as bends in the
river and vegetation. Roughness decreases downstream because erosion smooths out the
sides and bed of the channel, and also because the finer particles deposited lower down
the river’s course as a result of hydraulic sorting offer less resistance than do the coarser
boulders, pebbles, and cobbles deposited in the upper course. In the upper course not only
is roughness greater, but discharge is lower. As a result, slopes need to be steeper to
generate the energy necessary for the river to do its work; the amount of kinetic energy
available being linked not only to friction levels and velocity of flow, but also to mass of
water. Because roughness decreases and discharge increases with downstream distance,
energy use is more efficient and the channel slope becomes more gentle.

Studies in the United States, led by Luna B. Leopold of the US Geological Survey, first
established that downstream variations in the cross-sectional dimensions and geometry of
a river channel are predictable using equations expressing width, depth, and average
velocity as functions of discharge, sediment load, and erodibility of the bed and banks.
Leopold’s work showed that, in most rivers, decreasing roughness more than compensates
for the reduction in channel gradient, so that more kinetic energy is made available and
average velocity actually increases very slightly between the headwaters and lower course
of a river—rather than decreasing as might have been thought.

There are, of course, exceptions to these general rules of river regime and downstream
variation in channel form. For example, a band of hard, erosion-resistant rock may act
as a local base level to produce a bump, or knick-point, in the concave long profile,
while a tributary supplying coarse sediment may interrupt, in the main river, the trend
of downstream fining produced by hydraulic sorting. Rivers flowing through deserts
may lose more water to seepage and evaporation than they gain from run-off and
other sources, producing a decrease in discharge with distance from the source, and a
characteristic convex longitudinal profile. The River Nile in Egypt displays this
characteristic. A similar situation can be created by human beings when they extract
water for irrigation and other purposes. Examples include the Colorado River in the
United States and rivers running into the Aral Sea in central Asia. In the latter case,
extraction for irrigation has reduced discharge so much that the Aral Sea’s volume has
declined by some 70 per cent, and it has split into two sections. However,
observations made on rivers in all parts of the world support the idea that the features
produced by river processes can be divided into three broad categories associated with
the upper, middle, and lower courses of the river.

A Upper Course

In the upper course of a river, processes are dominated by sediment production and
incision of the channel into the landscape. The river cuts down vertically towards base level
to produce a narrow valley with a single channel, relatively steep sides, and interlocking
spurs. Interlocking spurs form because the river, taking the course of least resistance, is
forced to wind round protuberances in the surrounding highlands. This intensive
downcutting occurs because erosion tends to be concentrated during periods of increased
discharge, such as after heavy rainfall or snow-melt. It is usually only at such times that the
river has sufficient kinetic energy, and thus velocity and turbulence, to move the sediment
in the channel, which is predominantly heavy bed load.

The actual shape of the “V” depends on the relationship between, on the one hand, the
speed of downcutting and efficiency of sediment removal by the river, and, on the other
hand, the efficiency of slope processes, such as creep and mass movement, and the rate of
weathering, which is conditioned by factors such as climate, vegetation cover, and the
chemical structure of the underlying rock. In the upper course it is weathering and slope
processes that are primarily responsible for widening the valley and reducing the slope of
its sides, as well as for delivering material to the channel edge as scree and colluvium. The
river’s erosive capacity is concentrated on downcutting, although it can also contribute to
valley widening by undercutting the valley sides, which increases hill-slope erosion and
creates landslides that deliver sediment directly to the stream. Channel widening through
bank erosion can occur if an influx of coarse sediment raises the bed level, a process called
aggradation. If the river can cut down faster than weathering and slope processes can wear
back the valley sides, and if it can remove sediment as efficiently as they can deliver it,
then the “V” will be steeper than if it cannot.

If the side walls are formed in erosion-resistant rocks, then downcutting and sediment
removal become dominant, and a particularly deep, steep-sided valley called a gorge or
canyon may be formed. Gorges are also created when the local base level is uplifted as a
result either of rebound after glaciation (isostatic adjustment) or of tectonic activity, such
as crustal uplift after plate movement or volcanic activity. The river derives a large boost in
energy as a result of the uplift, which it utilizes in rapid downcutting in order to restore its
former slope—a process known as rejuvenation. The Grand Canyon in the western United
States, by far the best-known river gorge in the world, is a result of this cause. Tectonic
uplift of the surrounding Kaibab Plateau has just matched the rate of downcutting of the
Colorado River to produce a canyon that is more than 1.6 km (1 mi) deep.

Where a band of hard rock, or a tributary valley supplying coarse boulders, meets a
river that is downcutting, the rate of bed lowering is slowed. The rate increases again
downstream, leading to the generation between the two points of a steep reach of
channel with fast, shallow, highly turbulent flows called rapids or cataracts. The
cataracts of the River Nile in Egypt are an excellent example of this type of feature.
Waterfalls are another feature produced by vertical adjustment of the channel’s long
profile. They form at the point where a degrading river, after crossing a band of
relatively hard rock, meets a band of less resistant rock (Niagara Falls, North
America), at a fault line (Gordale Scar, United Kingdom), where rivers flow over the
edge of a plateau (Livingstone Falls, Zaïre), and where glacial erosion has left the
junction between a tributary and the main valley as a hanging valley (Bridal Falls,
Yosemite National Park, in the United States).

B Middle Course

Middle-course river processes are dominated by lateral rather than vertical erosion and by
sediment transport. The majority of sediment is transported as suspended load, and the
sediment becomes finer. Coarser cobbles and pebbles derived from upland erosion are
largely deposited, and gravels and sands stored in alluvium and colluvium become the
dominant sediment type. The valley is wider than in the upper course, the sides are less
steep, and the channel is bordered by a floodplain—an area of low relief that is inundated
by water when the river floods, and which is covered in alluvium. The river commonly
adopts a sinuous (winding) course, sweeping across its floodplain in a series of long bends
called meanders, named after the Büyük Menderes, a river in south-western Turkey. The
meanders are separated by shorter straight reaches called crossings.
The precise cause of meandering remains uncertain, but it is probably triggered by the
sinuous movement that occurs naturally in fluid flows, even in straight channels, and which
helps create irregularities in the river’s long profile, called pools and riffles. These are
regularly spaced, alternating areas of deep and shallow water. Pools comprise hollows
scoured in the bed and usually covered in relatively fine gravel and silt; riffles are
accumulations of coarser pebbles and cobbles. Pool-riffle sequences probably begin
because of differing velocities within the sinuous flow, which cause coarser sediment to be
deposited at points where the velocity decreases. Once the riffles have begun to develop,
differences in velocity are emphasized, initiating a pattern of scour, deposition, and
localized sediment sorting. During times of bank-full discharge (that is, when the river is
full but has not overflown its banks), water flows fastest in the deeper pools, entraining
coarser sediment and depositing it on downstream riffles where velocities slow. At times of
low discharge, the reverse occurs: flow speeds up over the riffles, where the water is
shallowest, reaching the critical velocity for moving finer sediment on the riffles; this is
then deposited in the pools, where flow is more sluggish. Pool-riffle sequences are thought
to begin in relatively straight stretches of river, but as the sinuosity of the flow becomes
increased by the alternation of deeper and shallow areas, it becomes reflected in the
course of the channel itself, which begins to develop meanders in which pools tend to be
located in the bends and riffles in the crossings.

Pools are highly asymmetrical features. A cross-section would show a sloping bed, with the
deepest point close to the outer bank and a shallow, shelving inner bank caused by
deposition. This asymmetry is the result of helicoidal, or spiral, flow. Because the line of
deepest water (the thalweg) and the line of highest velocity normally coincide, the current
swings from side to side, piling up the fastest-flowing surface water on the outside of the
bend. This initiates an unequal pressure distribution across the channel that causes the
fast-flowing water on the outside of the bends to be drawn down and across the bottom of
the bed, thus displacing slower near-bed water and forcing it up at the inside bank. The
circular cross-current thus generated is superimposed upon the main, downstream, current
creating the spiral flow.

The downward movement of the water causes a deep, scouring action that, combined with
the high velocities, erodes the bank on the outside of the bend, producing a steep river
cliff. Meander bends are not static. They both progress downstream and migrate laterally
because the erosion and retreat of the outer bank is matched by the advance of the inner
bank through deposition of sediment (lateral accretion) as a point bar. Through time,
meanders sweep back and forth across the flood plain, in a process known as lateral
shifting, reworking the alluvium and leaving an undulating topography of scroll-shaped
ridges interspersed with areas of low elevation called swales. Occasionally, a meander
bend is destroyed when a particularly large flood or a change in upstream alignment
causes the river to cut through the point bar, creating a narrow, fast-flowing channel called
a chute cut-off. This leaves a reach of abandoned channel with a meander scar at the site
of the former river cliff. The middle courses of most rivers, including for example the
Severn and Trent in the United Kingdom, display meandering courses with river features
typical of this channel pattern.
However, not all rivers meander in their middle course and braiding is a relatively common
channel form. Braided rivers are very wide and relatively shallow, with multiple channels,
or anabranches, that divide and rejoin around medial islands called braid bars.
Anabranches form and are abandoned frequently, and braid bars migrate continuously,
giving the river an unpredictable, shifting pattern. The cause of middle-course braiding is
unknown. However, it is known to be associated with high-energy rivers that carry a large
load of sand and gravel. Consequently, middle-course braided rivers are found draining
glaciated regions (for example, the Sólheimajökull sandur in Iceland) and young fold
mountains (for example, the Rakaia River draining the Southern Alps in New Zealand), both
of which yield an abundance of coarse sediment.

Where a river that is heavily loaded with sediment emerges from a steep upper course
in the mountains on to a broad plain, so much sediment is deposited that it blocks,
diverts, and again blocks the channel to form an alluvial fan. The Kosi River in India
has one of the largest alluvial fans in the world, which is situated where the river
leaves the Himalaya to enter the wide floodplain of the Ganges.

C Lower Course

Lower-course river processes are dominated by sediment deposition, or storage, and

floodplain building. Sediment is deposited during lateral shifting by the channel (or
channels, in the case of braided rivers), and during flood flows. Repeated flooding over
time leads to the build-up of successive layers of alluvium on the floodplain, a process
known as vertical accretion. For many years it was thought that lateral shifting was
primarily responsible for the building up of floodplains. However, recent studies of
floodplain stratigraphy suggest that most contemporary lowland floodplain building has
been a response to the rises in base level caused by increasing sea levels during the
Holocene epoch. If base level falls for any reason, but notably as a result of isostatic uplift
following the end of glaciation, the lower course of the river will be rejuvenated and it will
begin to cut down, creating a new floodplain. Remnant surfaces of the former floodplain
will be left behind as terraces, which appear as flat-topped elevated landforms of equal
height running down the sides of the new floodplain. Parts of the terrace are likely to be
destroyed by lateral shifting of the channel, so terraces are not often continuous features.
Successive alterations of base level, such as during and since the Pleistocene ice age, can
leave behind a series of terraces of different heights, or stepped terraces. Those of the
Thames valley in southern England are among the best known. Hyde Park, for example, lies
on the first of the Thames terraces.

Lowland rivers may be either meandering or braided, depending on levels of energy and
sediment load. Lowland meandering rivers are more sinuous than their middle-course
counterparts and channels may become so tortuous and bends so pronounced that during
a flood the river cuts through the narrow neck of land separating the ends of the bend. This
is known as a neck cut-off. Because the river has straightened its channel, at least
temporarily, the main current returns to the centre of the river and deposition occurs at the
sides, eventually cutting off the old curve. Abandoned bends are characteristically
horseshoe-shaped and they persist in the riverscape as oxbow lakes. Oxbows collect local
drainage and also receive water and fine sediment during overbank flows (floods).
Eventually they silt up to form clay plugs within the body of the floodplain alluvium.

The flow velocity of water drops markedly when it leaves the channel during floods. For this
reason the rate of deposition on the floodplain during floods (overbank accretion)
decreases exponentially with distance from the river. Through time, the land along the
edges of the channel builds up faster than that further back in the floodplain to form ridges
called levees (French levare, “to raise”). Levees block drainage to the river from the lower
areas of the floodplain, which become marshy backswamps. The richness and diversity of
environments and habitats provided by these river features support a variety of
ecosystems, ranging from gallery forests on the relatively dry levees, to wetland
communities in the backswamps. It is not uncommon for backswamp areas to develop a
drainage system which is practically independent of the main water course. A floodplain
river of this type is called a Yazoo stream, after the Yazoo River in the state of Mississippi,
United States. More generally, the Lower Mississippi River is regarded as the world’s best
example of a lowland meandering system.

Lowland rivers with very large sediment loads adopt a braided pattern, with bars built from
sand rather than the gravels of middle-course braided systems. Lowland braided rivers are
characterized by shifting anabranches and high rates of bank erosion. Some anabranches
do not rejoin the main river. Instead they become distributary rivers that take their own
path to the sea. Some braid bars persist at the same location for long periods. The
establishment of vegetation and, in some cases, cultivation and habitation on braid bars
can lead to their becoming semi-permanent features of the riverscape. The charlands of
the Brahmaputra River in Bangladesh are probably the best-known example. More than
600,000 people live on islands (chars) within a braided river that is up to 17 km (10 mi)
wide. However, they have at best a tenuous hold on their land; the shifting nature of the
anabranches and consequent destruction of the islands means that, on average, charland
dwellers must move homes 20 times during their lifetime.

The form of the river at its outfall to the sea depends on the local history of land uplift and
sea-level change, and on the balance between fluvial and coastal geomorphological
processes. A delta forms where a sediment-laden river reaches a lake or ocean. The name
derives from the fact that its shape, which is roughly triangular, resembles the Greek letter
delta. Deltas form because sediment accumulates at the mouth of the river, blocking it and
diverting flow to a new location. This pattern is continuously repeated, causing deltas to
increase in size. An estuary forms as a result of tidal action in the mouth of a river that has
been drowned by the increase in sea levels that has occurred during the Holocene as a
result of the melting of ice after the Pleistocene ice age.

IV CONCEPTS OF EQUILIBRIUM AND CHANNEL CHANGE

The study of river features has produced a series of important theories and concepts in
geomorphology. Early ideas centred on the cycle of erosion, the sequence of erosional
processes and forms codified and popularized at the end of the 19th century by the
American geographer William Morris Davis. Later, the concept of dynamic equilibrium, of a
balance between erosion and deposition, became popular. Recently, this concept has been
replaced by a greater appreciation of the continuous dynamic adjustments occurring in
most rivers and of the complexity of channel evolution.

Davis, writing in 1899, first introduced the idea that landforms were the product of
structure, process, and time. He used the example of river-system development to
illustrate a general model of landscape change, which he called the geographical cycle,
and which is more widely known as the cycle of erosion, or Davisian cycle. According to this
model, young streams cut V-shaped valleys into recently uplifted mountains, while mature
streams widen their valleys through meandering and floodplain formation. In old age, rivers
are approaching their base level and meander more widely, depositing sediment across
extensive, low-lying plains called peneplains. The application of the concepts of youth,
maturity, and old age to landscapes created by fluvial processes led Davis to write: “A
young land-form has young streams of torrential activity, while an old form would have an
old stream of deliberate or even feeble current.” What Davis could not know, because no
measurements had been made at that time, was that far from being feeble, large, lowland
rivers, such as the Mississippi and the Brahmaputra, have a velocity that is actually higher
than that in their upland tributaries. Many later researchers, such as the influential German
geomorphologist Walter Penck, have criticized Davis’s model for over-simplification and for
not, in fact, actually being cyclic, but instead a one-directional process that changes a
landscape from highland to peneplain. Because base levels have changed many times,
particularly as a result of adjustments associated with the growth and retreat of ice sheets
over the past 2 million years, it is unlikely that the formation of fluvial landscapes can be a
unidirectional process. Rejuvenation, for example, is far commoner than Davis appreciated.
However, despite such incorrect assumptions, Davis’s model still represents an important
framework within which geographers can explain landform development.

During the 1940s and 1950s geomorphologists considered the idea that in its middle
course a river could maintain over time the same size and form provided that sediment
output to the lowland storage zone just matched sediment input from the upland source
zone. This concept, called dynamic equilibrium, was believed to be achieved through fine
adjustments of the channel slope, so that the sediment load was equal to the sediment
supply. The American geomorphologist, J. Hoover Mackin (1948), stated that when the
slope was perfectly adjusted in this way the river would have a graded profile—hence the
alternative name sometimes used for dynamic equilibrium, the concept of grade. However,
it was later recognized that rivers rarely have graded profiles because a variety of factors,
notably changes in climate, base level, catchment vegetation, and land use, disturb the
system. Not only do such disturbances preclude the equilibrium conditions necessary to
achieve grade, they also drive almost continuous adjustment within the river system.

Field and laboratory work by the American geomorphologist Stanley Schumm during the
1970s and 1980s showed that the rates and directions of adjustment are non-linear. He
also demonstrated, using the ideas of systems theory, that if thresholds of landscape
stability (or geomorphic thresholds) are exceeded as a result of changes intrinsic to the
landform itself, in this case a river system, then what he termed as complex response may
be triggered—involving widespread instability in the system and irreversible channel
changes. Recently, geomorphologists have observed that these channel changes involve
not only the slope, but also the width, depth, bed roughness, and pattern of the channel.
Greater appreciation of the wide extent and complexity of dynamic adjustments is now
being incorporated into modern approaches to river engineering and management. Such
approaches attempt to work with rather than against fluvial processes and seek to retain
the natural features of the river.

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