Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

A Novel Approach to Calculate Braiding of a Large Alluvial River


Affiliations
1 Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781 039, India
2 Department of Environmental Science, Tezpur University, Tezpur 784 028, India
 

Braiding pattern in sixteen reaches of the Brahmaputra river in Assam, India is discussed. A new braiding index has been introduced incorporating a fraction of area covered by sandbars, number of midchannel bars and maximum width of alluvial reach. Braiding parameters calculated using different formulae showed similar trend but higher values in 2014 compared to 1973. Increase of braiding in different reaches in 2014 was due to development of more sandbars and distributaries. The new index has shown comparable result with other approaches and better correlation with sinuosity.

Keywords

Alluvial River, Braiding, Sandbars, Brahmaputra.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Brice, J. C., Index for description of channel braiding. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 1960, 71, 1833.

  • Brice, J. C., Channel patterns and terraces of the Loup Rivers in Nebraska. Geol. Surv. Prof. Pap., 1964, 422-D.

  • Rust, B. R., A classification of alluvial channel systems. In Fluvial Sedimentology. Can. Soc. Petrol. Geol.: Alberta, 1978, 187– 198.

  • Howard, A. D., Keetch, M. E. and Vincent, C. L., Topological and geometrical properties of braided streams. Water Resour. Res., 1970, 6, 1674–1688.

  • Ashmore, P. E., Laboratory modelling of gravel braided stream morphology. Earth Surf. Proc. Land., 1982, 7, 201–225.

  • Mosley, P. M., Semi-determinate hydraulic geometry of river channels, South Island, New Zealand. Earth Surf. Proc. Landf., 1981, 6, 127–137.

  • Friend, P. F. and Sinha, R., Braiding and meandering parameters. In Braided Rivers (eds Best, J. L. and Bristow, C. S.), The Geological Society, London, 1993, pp. 105–112.

  • Sharma, N., Mathematical modelling and braid indicators. The Brahmaputra Basin Water Resources, Water Science and Technology Library, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, 2004, vol. 47, pp. 229–260.

  • Bridge J. S., Alluvial Channels and Bars. Rivers and Floodplains: Forms, Processes, and Sedimentary Record, Blackwell Science Ltd, Oxford, UK, 2009, p. 151.

  • Coleman, J. M., Brahmaputra River: channel processes and sedimentation. Sediment. Geol., 1969, 3, 129–239.

  • Mahanta, C. and Saikia, L., The Brahmaputra and other rivers of the North-east. In Living rivers, Dying Rivers (ed. Iyer, R.), Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2015, p. 155.

  • Finlayson, D. P., Montgomery, D. R. and Hallet, B., Spatial coincidence of rapid inferred erosion with young metamorphic massifs in the Himalayas. Geology, 2002, 30, 219–222.

  • Finnegan, N. J., Hallet, B., Montgomery, D. R., Zeitler, P. K., Stone, J. O., Anders, A. M. and Liu, Y., Coupling of rock uplift and river incision in the Namche Barwa – Gyala Peri massif, Tibet, China. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 2008, 120, 142–155.

  • Stewart, R. J., Hallet, B., Zeitler, P. K., Malloy, M. A., Allen, C. M. and Trippett, D., Brahmaputra sediment flux dominated by highly localized rapid erosion from the eastern most Himalaya. Geology, 2008, 36, 711–714.

  • Larsen, I. J. and Montgomery, D. R., Landslide erosion coupled to tectonics and river incision. Nature Geosc., 2012, 5, 468–473.

  • Egozi, R. and Ashmore, P., Defining and measuring braiding intensity. Earth Surf. Proc. Landf., 2008, 33, 2121–2138.


Abstract Views: 232

PDF Views: 83




  • A Novel Approach to Calculate Braiding of a Large Alluvial River

Abstract Views: 232  |  PDF Views: 83

Authors

Lalit Saikia
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781 039, India
Chandan Mahanta
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781 039, India
Suranjana Bhaswati Borah
Department of Environmental Science, Tezpur University, Tezpur 784 028, India

Abstract


Braiding pattern in sixteen reaches of the Brahmaputra river in Assam, India is discussed. A new braiding index has been introduced incorporating a fraction of area covered by sandbars, number of midchannel bars and maximum width of alluvial reach. Braiding parameters calculated using different formulae showed similar trend but higher values in 2014 compared to 1973. Increase of braiding in different reaches in 2014 was due to development of more sandbars and distributaries. The new index has shown comparable result with other approaches and better correlation with sinuosity.

Keywords


Alluvial River, Braiding, Sandbars, Brahmaputra.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv115%2Fi6%2F1179-1185