Flow directionality of pristine meandering rivers is embedded in the skewing of high-amplitude bends and neck cutoffs.

ABSTRACT: Information concerning the dynamics of river meandering is embedded in their planforms. Here, we focus on how bend skewing varies with increasing sinuosity, and how flow direction is embedded in bend skewing. It has often been thought that upstream-skewed bends are dominant within a sufficiently long reach. These bends may allow a reasonable inference as to the direction of flow. Here we consider this issue using 20 reaches of freely meandering alluvial rivers that are in remote locations, generally far from human influence. We find that low-amplitude bends tend to be downstream-, rather than upstream-skewed. Bends with sinuosity greater than 2.6, however, are predominantly upstream-skewed. Of particular interest are the neck cutoffs, all chosen to be relatively recent according to their p

SUBMITTER: Guo X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6876206 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature