Planetary Scale Analysis of the Morphology of River Channels and Channel Belt Deposits

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint.

Add a Comment

You must log in to post a comment.


Comments

There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article.

Downloads

Download Preprint

Authors

Bjorn Nyberg, Gijs Henstra, Robert Leslie Gawthorpe, Rodmar Ravnås, Juha Ahokas

Abstract

The morphology of a river and its channel belt is in part the product of ecological, hydrological and tectonic processes shaping the terrestrial landscape. River morphology is critical for understanding their physical evolution through time, and in predicting the future behavior of rivers and floods. To date, there is no global-scale, quantitative study of the morphology of rivers and their channel belt deposits. Based on a pattern recognition algorithm, we can calculate that the global surface area of channel belts, at an approximate 1 km resolution, is estimated at 30.5 x 105 km2, seven times larger than the extent of river channels. We find that 52% of river channels have a more braided planform morphology with the remaining 48% being more meandering. The new global river morphology (GRM) map and datasets allows new ways to study river morphology and to improve analysis of flood mitigation, freshwater resources management, and ecosystem accounting.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31223/X5Q066

Subjects

Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Keywords

Dates

Published: 2022-10-18 02:27

License

CC BY Attribution 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Conflict of interest statement:
None