Chapter 4: Fluvial Processes in Riparian Areas
Introduction
- Riparian areas are characterized by a relative abundance
of water.
- Water is fundamental to the health and survival of riparian
areas.
- It is easy to imagine water flowing through a channel reach,
over rocks, past a sand bar covered with mud, and around a
bend. Why does the channel bend and where did the rocks come
from? What happens when a flood comes, where did all the mud
come from, is this the way the channel is supposed to look?
- Knowledge of the processes that act to distribute
water and sediment within watersheds and through riparian environments
will help us understand:
- which factors can be changed through management,
- the potential and actual impacts of upstream and downstream
conditions and their connectivity,
- how historic land use and watershed evolution patterns
are likely to determine the extent to which current conditions
can be modified,
- how to create realistic expectations of
what the channel should look like in response to management.
