Theoretical Morphodynamics: River Meandering

Download or read book Theoretical Morphodynamics: River Meandering written by Giovanni Seminara and published by Firenze University Press. This book was released on 2024-04-05 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This monograph discusses the mechanics of Meandering Rivers with the help of the mathematical and modeling tools built up in the previous monograph of the same Authors (monograph 1 of the present series). After introducing the reader to the ubiquitous character of meandering streams, we discuss the hydrodynamics of curved channels with fixed beds and banks. Next, we extend the analysis to account for the mobile character of the bed and show that it gives rise to the alternate sequence of riffles and pools that characterize river meanders. Allowing for the erodible character of the river banks then allows to build up a rational theory of meander formation able to explain most of the features observed in nature: meander growth, migration, skewing, multiple loops, cutoffs and meander belts.