Geomorphic Analysis of River Systems – An Approach to Reading the Landscape

Filling a niche in the geomorphology teaching market, this introductory book is built around a 12 week course in fluvial geomorphology. Reading the landscape entails making sense of what a riverscape looks like, how it works, how it has evolved over time, and how alterations to one part of a catchment may have secondary consequences elsewhere, over different timeframes. These place-based field analyses are framed within their topographic, climatic and environmental context. Issues and principles presented in the first part of this book provide foundational understandings that underpin the approach to reading the landscape that is presented in the second half of the book. In reading the landscape, detective-style investigations and interpretations are tied to theoretical and conceptual principles to generate catchment-specific analyses of river character, behaviour and evolution, including responses to human disturbance. This book has been constructed as an introductory text on river landscapes, providing a bridge and/or companion to quantitatively-framed or modelled approaches to landscape analysis that are addressed elsewhere. Key principles outlined in the book emphasise the importance of complexity, contingency and emergence in interpreting the character, behaviour and evolution of any given system. The target audience is second and third year undergraduate students in geomorphology, hydrology, earth science and environmental science, as well as river practitioners who use geomorphic understandings to guide scientific and/or management applications. The primary focus of Kirstie and Gary s research and teaching entails the use of geomorphic principles as a tool with which to develop coherent scientific understandings of river systems, and the application of these understandings in management practice. Kirstie and Gary are co-developers of the River Styles(R) Framework and Short Course that is widely used in river management, decision-making and training. Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/fryirs/riversystems.

Table of Contents:
Preface xi Acknowledgements xiv 1 Geomorphic analysis of river systems: an approach to reading the landscape 1 Introduction 1 How is geomorphology useful? 2 Geomorphic analysis of river systems: our approach to reading the landscape 3 Key messages from this chapter 7 2 Key concepts in river geomorphology 9 Introduction 9 Spatial considerations in reading the landscape 9 Catchment linkages and (dis)connectivity 14 Conceptualisation of time 17 Differentiating behaviour from change 21 Disturbance events 22 Magnitude frequency relationships in river systems 23 River sensitivity and resilience 25 Catchment-specific analysis of river systems: combining spatial and temporal concepts 26 Conclusion 27 Key messages from this chapter 27 3 Catchment-scale controls on river geomorphology 29 Introduction: what is a catchment? 29 Process zones in catchments: sediment source, transfer and accumulation zones 29 Longitudinal profiles of rivers 31 Geomorphic transitions along river longitudinal profi les 32 Catchment morphometrics as controls on river character and behaviour 34 Geologic controls on drainage network form, and river character and behaviour 37 The influence of catchment configuration upon flow and sediment flux 41 Conclusion 42 Key messages from this chapter 42 4 Catchment hydrology 44 Introduction: what is hydrology? 44 The hydrological cycle 44 Operation of the hydrological cycle 45 Runoff generation 47 Groundwater flows 49 Catchment-scale runoff and discharge generation models 50 Channel initiation 51 Gully and channel formation 51 Flow regimes of perennial, intermittent and ephemeral rivers 53 Discharge and the magnitude/frequency of flow in river systems 54 Flood stages and hydrographs 56 Analysis of hydrograph shape 58 Discharge measurement 59 Flow frequency 60 Flow variability 61 Conclusion 62 Key messages from this chapter 62 5 Impelling and resisting forces in river systems 65 Introduction 65 Impelling and resisting forces and Lane s balance of erosion and deposition in channels 65 Mechanics of fluid flow 67 Impelling forces in river channels 68 Resisting forces in channels 70 Vegetation and wood as resistance elements in river systems 72 Manning s n as a unifying roughness parameter 75 The balance of impelling and resisting forces along longitudinal profiles 77 Conclusion 79 Key messages from this chapter 79 6 Sediment movement and deposition in river systems 81 Introduction 81 Grain size (sediment calibre) and definitions of bedload, mixed load and suspended load in rivers 81 Phases of sediment movement along rivers: the Hjulstrom diagram 84 Entrainment of sediment in river channels 85 Transport of sediment in river channels 88 Material properties that affect sediment movement in river systems 93 Deposition in river systems 102 Interpreting sediment sequences as a tool to read the landscape 104 Conclusion 114 Key messages from this chapter 114 7 Channel geometry 116 Introduction 116 Bed and bank processes that influence channel shape 117 Channel shape: putting the bed and banks together 124 Hydraulic geometry and adjustments to channel morphology 127 Conclusion 131 Key messages from this chapter 131 8 Instream geomorphic units 132 Introduction 132 Categories of geomorphic units and measures used to identify them in the field 133 Process form associations of instream geomorphic units 134 Unit and compound instream geomorphic units 151 Forced instream geomorphic units 151 The continuum of instream geomorphic units and transformations in type 152 Conclusion 153 Key messages from this chapter 154 9 Floodplain forms and processes 155 Introduction 155 Floodplain formation processes 156 Floodplain reworking processes 159 Floodplain geomorphic units 164 The energy spectrum of floodplain types 171 Conclusion 172 Key messages from this chapter 173 10 River diversity 174 Introduction 174 Framing rivers as assemblages of cross-scalar features 176 Defining reach boundaries 176 The continuum of river form 177 The spectrum of river diversity 178 Discriminating among river types 192 The River Styles framework 199 Tips for reading the landscape to interpret river diversity 201 Conclusion 203 Key messages from this chapter 203 11 River behaviour 205 Introduction 205 River behaviour versus river change 206 Dimensions of river adjustment 207 Natural capacity for adjustment of differing river types 209 Controls on the natural capacity for adjustment of different river types 210 Interpreting the behavioural regime of different river types by reading the landscape 212 Examples of behavioural regimes for differing types of rivers 214 Analysis of river behaviour using the river evolution diagram 222 Predicting river responses to altered flux boundary conditions 229 Tips for reading the landscape to interpret river behaviour 231 Conclusion 233 Key messages from this chapter 233 12 River evolution 235 Introduction 235 Timescales of river adjustment 236 Pathways and rates of river evolution 237 Geologic controls upon river evolution 239 Climatic influences on river evolution 241 Landscape memory: imprint of past geologic and climatic conditions upon contemporary river processes, forms and evolutionary trajectory 244 River responses to altered boundary conditions 246 Linking river evolution to the natural capacity for adjustment: adding river change to the river evolution diagram 255 Reading the landscape to interpret river evolution 261 Tips for reading the landscape to interpret river evolution 265 Conclusion 267 Key messages from this chapter 267 13 Human impacts on river systems 269 Introduction 269 Historical overview of human impacts upon river systems 270 Direct and indirect forms of human disturbance to rivers 272 Conceptualising river responses to human disturbance: adding human disturbance to the river evolution diagram 282 Assessing geomorphic river condition and recovery potential 290 Tips for reading the landscape to interpret human impacts on river systems 293 Conclusion 295 Key messages from this chapter 295 14 Sediment flux at the catchment scale: source-to-sink relationships 297 Introduction 297 Conceptualising sediment flux through catchments 297 Techniques used to construct a sediment budget 298 Controls upon sediment flux 302 Analysis of sediment flux across various scales 309 Tips for reading the landscape to interpret catchment-scale sediment flux 315 Conclusion 318 Key messages from this chapter 318 15 The usefulness of river geomorphology: reading the landscape in practice 320 Introduction 320 Respect diversity 321 Understand system dynamics and evolution 321 Know your catchment 322 Closing comment: how the book should be used 323 References 324 Selected readings 328 Index 335 The color plate section can be found between pages 194 and 195