Drainage Basin Dynamics

This volume provides a versatile introduction to the study of drainage basin evolution, morphology, drainage basin hydrology and sedimentology, human interference, natural and anthropogenic hazards and various management techniques. This book offers the responsible factors of sediment yield and their absolute and specific growth and rate of delivery through tributaries to the main streams. Rivers are important geomorphic agents which reflect an amazing variety of form and behaviour, showing the wide range of natural environment in which they are originated. The drainage system evolution and spatial network development within the dynamic nature are being discussed and how they are adjusted in the geomorphic time scale over the millions of years. This book shows how drainage systems function and react to change and why this thoughtful is required for flourishing integrated basin management. In tropical and sub-tropical countries population pressures as well as different developmental projects are being executed on the drainage basin without proper planning. Today scientists consider drainage basin as an administrative unit during implementation of regional projects. In this context this book will carry a bench mark for scholars and young scientists.

Rivers are important agents of change that shape the Earth's surface and evolve through time in response to fluctuations in climate and other environmental conditions. They are fundamental in landscape development, and essential for water supply, irrigation, and transportation. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the geomorphological processes that shape rivers and that produce change in the form of rivers. It explores how the dynamics of rivers are being affected by anthropogenic change, including climate change, dam construction, and modification of rivers for flood control and land drainage. It discusses how concern about environmental degradation of rivers has led to the emergence of management strategies to restore and naturalize these systems, and how river management techniques work best when coordinated with the natural dynamics of rivers. This textbook provides an excellent resource for students, researchers, and professionals in fluvial geomorphology, hydrology, river science, and environmental policy.

Concise, recent textbook emphasisng sedimentary processes in alluvial channels Comprehensive treatment of flow-bed-sediment transport interactions Description and explaination of turbulent flow phenomena as well as flow and sediment dynamics at channel confluences Chapter on river channels, aquatic habitats and the hyporheic zone

Maria Sala introduced experimental and field-based studies on soil and fluvial processes in Spain during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Research on this broad topic has grown remarkably worldwide since then. This title shows some of these advances and documents the latest research, although with a particularity: it gives special treatment to research on Mediterranean climate regions, an ever-present issue in Maria Sala's research career. It contains the latest research on slope and river processes with a special emphasis on rivers and catchments with a Mediterranean climate. Papers cover a gamut of topics describing research and applied studies, mainly in Spain, but also in Israel, the USA, Canada, the UK and New Zealand. The book examines natural and anthropogenic processes operating in drainage basins and includes coverage of current experimental and fieldwork investigations on soil erosion, river and catchment hydrology, suspended sediment transport and bedload dynamics in gravel-bed rivers, and present-day diagnosis and future key-paths for catchment and river management. * Examines the natural and anthropogenic processes operating in drainage basins and river channels, and covers current investigations on Process Geomorphology and Catchment Hydrology, including management issues * Topics covered include soil erosion, catchment hydrology, suspended sediment transport, bedload dynamics in gravel-bed rivers, and sediment yield * Emphasis is on the Mediterranean region

This book introduces the geological concept of the “windfield-source-basin system,” based on integrated modern and ancient sedimentology studies. It identifies wind field as a main sedimentation-controlling factor that combines with provenance and basin dynamics to determine the formation and distribution of depositional systems. Using the unary properties of facies, sedimentary models and the duality properties of source-to-sink approaches, the concept of a “wind-source-basin system” introduces the “sedimentary system trinity”: wind field, provenance and basin properties. “Wind-source-basin systems” provide more plausible genetic interpretations of depositional systems (including both continental and marine facies, and clastic and carbonate systems), as well as more comprehensive and precise predictions of depositional systems (hydrocarbon reservoirs) in unknown regions. Further, the book proposes a series of methods on paleowind field reconstruction, which fill the gaps in paleo-atmospheric field studies in paleoclimatology, and shows that allocating relationships among source-reservoir-cap in petroliferous basins are limited by the “wind-source-basin system”. This trinity system also provides a new perspective on petroleum geology assessment. The book appeals to all those engaged in sedimentology, petroleum geology and climatology studies.

This book explores fluvial processes and their consequences on river dynamics in India. It discusses the integration of geomorphic, hydrologic, and socio-economic data with various policies and decisions regarding sustainable river basin management. The volume looks at the origin and development of streams, chronology of fluvial geomorphology, fluvial system concept, process–form interaction, river dynamics, channel migration, flow regime, channel types, and hydraulic and morphometric parameters; and explains how changing hydro-geomorphological dynamics have influenced land use patterns, nature of fluids, behaviour of floods, etc. It examines channel migration vulnerability and bank erosion hazard vulnerability of the Torsa River in the eastern region of India as a case study using channel migration zone and Bank Erosion Hazard Index models. The book presents a new research framework based on field surveys, scientific investigations, and analytical techniques and methods to interpret key geoinformatics data. With its extensive illustrations, this book will be useful to students, teachers, and researchers of geography, earth sciences, environmental geology, and environment and disaster management. It will also interest geographers, civil engineers, hydrologists, geomorphologists, planners, and other individuals and organizations working on fluvial processes and riverbank erosion problems globally.