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A stream with cohesive banks that are resistant to erosion will form narrow, deep, meandering channels, whereas a stream with highly erodible banks will form wide, shallow channels, preventing the helical flow of the water necessary for meandering and resulting in the formation of braided channels.
A wide variety of river and stream channel types exist in limnology, the study of inland waters.All these can be divided into two groups by using the water-flow gradient as either low gradient channels for streams or rivers with less than two percent (2%) flow gradient, or high gradient channels for those with greater than a 2% gradient.
Braided rivers, which form in (tectonically active) areas that have a larger sedimentary load than the discharge of the river and a high gradient. Meandering rivers, which form a sinuous path in a usually low-gradient plain toward the end of a fluvial system.
The degree of meandering of the channel of a river, stream, or other watercourse is measured by its sinuosity. The sinuosity of a watercourse is the ratio of the length of the channel to the straight line down-valley distance. Streams or rivers with a single channel and sinuosities of 1.5 or more are defined as meandering streams or rivers. [1] [3]
Braided rivers have complex and unpredictable channel patterns, and sediment size tends to vary among streams. [3] It is these features that are responsible for the formations of braid bars. Braided streams are often overfed with massive amounts of sediment which creates multiple stream channels within one dominant pair of flood bank plains. [2]
Natural alluvial channels have a variety of morphological patterns, but can be generally described as straight, meandering, braided, or anastomosing. [3] Different channel patterns result from differences in bankfull discharge, gradient, sediment supply, and bank material. [3]
Meandering rivers have a sinuosity value/ratio of greater than 1.5. A sinuosity value of less than 1.1 is a “straight” river. Between these values, a river is described as sinuous which describes those in a transitory state between the two states. Braided rivers do not follow this same convention. [3]
Rocky stream in Italy Frozen stream in Enäjärvi, Pori, Finland Stream near Montriond in south-eastern France Aubach (Wiehl) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. A stream is a continuous body of surface water [1] flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a ...