HR: 1340h
AN: H33E-1421    [Abstracts]
TI: River corridor geometry: Scaling relationships and confluence controls
AU: * Gangodagamage, C
EM: gango009@umn.edu
AF: St. Anthony Falls Laboratory and National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota, 2, 3rd Avenue SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414 United States
AU: Foufoula-Georgiou, E
EM: efi@umn.edu
AF: St. Anthony Falls Laboratory and National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minnesota, 2, 3rd Avenue SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414 United States
AU: Dietrich, W E
EM: bill@eps.berkeley.edu
AF: Department of Earth and Planetary Science and National Center for Earth-Surface Dynamics, University of California, 307, McCone Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AB: River corridor (valley) geometry is a topographic signature of tectonic and fluvial processes in a watershed. It is significantly affected by the tributary basins at confluences and its geometry influences the vegetation pattern and riverine habitat heterogeneity along the river reaches. An algorithm was developed to extract from LIDAR data the valley geometry and vegetation height along the whole river network as a function of distance downstream of the confluence, distance from the stream, and depth from the water surface. Based on those data and field observations from the Angelo Coast Reserve in the Eel river basin, CA, we propose metrics that quantify the "geomorphologic significance" of a tributary and we explore scaling relationships in valley geometry, riparian vegetation, and in the effect of confluences on the downstream channel morphometry.
DE: 1625 Geomorphology and weathering (0790, 1824, 1825, 1826, 1886)
DE: 1813 Eco-hydrology
DE: 1820 Floodplain dynamics
DE: 1825 Geomorphology: fluvial (1625)
DE: 1839 Hydrologic scaling
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005