Overview: Channel morphology and sediment transport in steepland streams

Abstract

Abstract - New understanding of how steepland channels formed is being pursued over a large range of scales, from entrainment of bed particles to the transfer of stored sediment down channel systems. Low submergence of bed particles during transport and wide heterogeneity in particle sizes strongly affect bedload transport. At the scale of a reach, scour-lobes are becoming widely recognized as common constructional units governing behavior of braided, meandering, and pool-riffle channels. Channel morphology and sediment transport can be radically altered by infrequent debris flows and torrents, however, which provide a common linkage between mass movement on hillslopes and sediment transport in channels. Because of the impracticality of monitoring the downstream progress of sediment over meaningful periods, sediment routing is best approached by mathematical models that incorporate the age and volume of sediment in storage reservoirs.

Citation

Lisle, T. E. 1987. Overview: Channel morphology and sediment transport in steepland streams. In: R. Beschta, T. Blinn, G. E. Grant, F. J. Swanson, and G. G. Ice (ed.), Erosion and Sedimentation in the Pacific Rim (Proceedings of the Corvallis Symposium, August 1987). International Association of Hydrological Sciences Pub. No. 165, p. 287-297.