In this study, we conducted multiple physical experiments to estimate the efficacy and spatial pattern of erosion by abrading sediment moving through a simple U‐shaped channel bend with erodible bed and banks. The experiments showed that in the bend, lateral abrasion followed a monotonically increasing linear relationship with sediment feed rate. However, vertical incision had a more complex relation with the sediment feed rate, with an initial increase in abrasion as the feed rate increased followed by a decrease in abrasion of the bed as cover effects became dominant at higher feed rates. Bank erosion was large in places where the width and the lateral slope of the point bar were relatively large. On the other hand, in places where the width of the point bar was smaller, the bedrock bed was eroded primarily along the boundary of the point bar, resulting in a bedrock bench near the outer bank.

Here, we provide a numerical model that assigns an identification number to trace sediments and also identify the source of sediment supply. We analyze the efficacy of our model by reproducing the reach-scale field observations from flooding events in 2010 and 2016 that affected Kyusen Bridge over the Bebetsu River, Hokkaido, Japan. Our simulation results can successfully reproduce and trace the formation of bars caused by sediment supply in the study region. Our study also suggests a strong relationship between bank erosion rate, sediment supply and flow-discharge. The bank erosion rate is higher when sediment supply increases, and bank erosion reduces as flow discharge goes down. The model can also replicate the changes in a bed concerning sediment supply and was used to reproduce the bridge-abutment failure caused by the 2016 flooding with large sediment supply and the bridge-pier failure caused by the 2010 flooding with less sediment supply.

New waterway projects such as cutoffs and gravel extractions have been carried out all over the country. The shortcuts have lowered river water surface elevation during flooding, and they have been shown to suppress these flooding events. On the other hand, the riverbed elevations rapidly decreased as bed slope changed artificially and canyons were formed in several rivers. Little is known about how riverbed degradation occurs or how the canyon is formed by change in the bed slope. In this study, we conducted numerical simulations to evaluate the deformations of alluvial bed and peat bed. The results suggest that the bed slope becomes constant on the alluvial bed and the erosion proceeds at the bare peat bed. The results also show that the upstream migration of the peat bed slope forms cyclic steps morphology. Also, we carried out numerical simulation to reproduce bed degradation of the Yubari River caused by cutoffs.

No abstract

Waterfalls are among the fastest-eroding parts of river networks, but predicting natural waterfall retreat rates is difficult due to multiple processes that can drive waterfall erosion. We lack data on how waterfall height influences the mechanism and rate of upstream waterfall retreat. We addressed this knowledge gap with experiments testing the influence of drop height on waterfall retreat. Our experiments showed that shorter waterfalls retreat up to five times faster than taller waterfalls, when bedrock strength, sediment supply, and water discharge are constant. This retreat rate difference is due to a change in the erosion mechanism. Short waterfalls retreat by the formation of several small, rapidly eroding bedrock steps (i.e., cyclic steps), whereas tall waterfalls tend to form large bedrock plunge pools where lateral plunge pool erosion allows headwall undercutting and subsequent waterfall retreat. Because waterfall height can be partially set by the waterfall formation mechanism, our results highlight that the rate of waterfall retreat and subsequent landscape evolution can be modulated by the processes that form waterfalls.