Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 376, Issue 6596, Pages 987-+Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.abm1215
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [EAR 1935669, EAR 1427262, EAR 1911321]
- Caltech Resnick Sustainability Institute
Ask authors/readers for more resources
A study has found that the location of river avulsions is controlled by multiple factors, including changes in valley confinement, flow deceleration or acceleration within the backwater zone, and the extent of flood-driven erosion upstream. These findings have important implications for predicting and mitigating avulsion hazards, as well as understanding the impacts of land use and climate change.
Rivers can abruptly shift pathways in rare events called avulsions, which cause devastating floods. The controls on avulsion locations are poorly understood as a result of sparse data on such features. We analyzed nearly 50 years of satellite imagery and documented 113 avulsions across the globe that indicate three distinct controls on avulsion location. Avulsions on fans coincide with valley-confinement change, whereas avulsions on deltas are primarily clustered within the backwater zone, indicating a control by spatial flow deceleration or acceleration during floods. However, 38% of avulsions on deltas occurred upstream of backwater effects. These events occurred in steep, sediment-rich rivers in tropical and desert environments. Our results indicate that avulsion location on deltas is set by the upstream extent of flood-driven erosion, which is typically limited to the backwater zone but can extend far upstream in steep, sediment-laden rivers. Our findings elucidate how avulsion hazards might respond to land use and climate change.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available