Spatiotemporal Characterization and Analysis of River Morphology Using Long-Term Landsat Imagery and Stream Power

Abstract

Meandering rivers are among the most dynamic Earth-surface systems, which generally appear in fertile valleys, the most valuable lands for agriculture and human settlement. Landsat time series and morphological parameters are complementary tools for exploring river dynamics. Karun River is the most effluent and largest meandering river in Iran, which keeps the Karun’s basin economy, agriculture, and industrial sections alive; hence, investigating morphological changes in this river is essential. The morphological characteristics of Karun have undergone considerable changes over time due to several tectonic, hydrological, hydraulic, and anthropogenic factors. This study has identified and analyzed morphological changes in Karun River using a time series of Landsat imagery from 1985–2015. On that basis, morphological dynamics, including the river’s active channel width, meander’s neck length, water flow length, sinuosity index, and Cornice central angle, were quantitatively investigated. Additionally, the correlation between the stream power and morphological factors was explored using the data adopted from the hydrometric stations. The results show that the dominant pattern of the Karun River, due to the sinuosity coefficient, is meandering, and the majority of the river falls in the category of developed meander rivers. Moreover, the number of arteries reduced in an anabranch pattern, and the river has been migrating towards the downstream and eastern sides since 1985. This phenomenon disposes a change in the future that can be hazardous to the croplands and demands specific considerations for catchment management.

A Sand Boil Database for Piping Risk Management in the Po River, Italy

“…These studies have stressed, in particular, the importance of identifying the different alluvial landforms encountered along the river systems, such as point bars, abandoned channel fillings, natural levees and backswamp deposits, as a key first step in order to predict the amount of underseepage and uplift pressure which develops landward of the river embankment. Aerial/satellite imagery [21,22] is often used to detect morphological factors that may reveal the susceptibility to backward erosion piping of the river embankment system. Work by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) along the Mississippi River (e.g., [22,23]) found that point bar deposits-consisting of low ridges of silty sand/sand with intervening arcuate depressions (referred to as swales) filled with fine-grained sediments-and channel fill deposits are the primary geologic environments for sand boil formation.…”

Analysis of Topographic Feature Parameters of Dinosaur Valley Ring Tectonic Geomorphology Based on the Advanced Land Observing Satellite Digital Elevation Model (ALOS DEM)

“…Topographic characterization studies extend beyond the scope of geomorphometry and terrain analysis, frequently establishing significant connections with other subfields of earth science. Examples encompass tectonics, hydrology, ecology, and geology [42,43]. However, acquiring information related to hydrogeology, tectonics, and fault data in the study area poses significant challenges.…”

Shrinking Desert Channel Response to Increasing Human Interferences and Changing Natural Factors in the Upper Yellow River

“…Channel geomorphological changes are usually complex in alluvial sandy-bed rivers, driven by the interactions of multiple factors, such as flow conditions, suspended sediment content and bedload composition and characteristics, of which a more comprehensive understanding has been recognized over the past half century [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. However, in arid and semi-arid regions, all kinds of aeolian sand dunes are the most common landforms and landscapes, e.g., [1,[20][21][22][23][24], where many rivers are tightly coupled and intersected with aeolian sand dunes [25][26][27][28][29][30][31].…”