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Low gradient channels of rivers and streams can be divided into braided rivers, wandering rivers, single thread sinuous rivers (meandering), and anastomosing rivers. The channel type developed depends on stream gradient, riparian vegetation and sediment supply.
Braided streams tend to occur in rivers with high sediment loads or coarse grain sizes, and in rivers with steeper slopes than typical rivers with straight or meandering channel patterns. They are also associated with rivers with rapid and frequent variation in the amount of water they carry, i.e., with " flashy " rivers, and with rivers with ...
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. Anastomosed river is a rare case of a relatively straight, complicated vertical ...
A mid-channel bar, is also often referred to as a braid bar because they are often found in braided river channels. Braided river channels are broad and shallow and found in areas where sediment is easily eroded like at a glacial outwash, or at a mountain front with high sediment loads. [1] [2] These types of river systems are associated with ...
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]
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]
The terms river morphology and its synonym stream morphology are used to describe the shapes of river 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 of the bed and banks (e.g., sand, clay, bedrock); erosion comes from the power and ...
The meander wavelength or alternate bar sequence is considered the primary ecological and morphological unit of meandering alluvial rivers. [4] The meander wavelength is composed of two alternating bar units, each with a pool scoured out from a cutbank , an aggradational lobe or point bar , and a riffle that connects the pool and point bar. [ 4 ]