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Selected Works of Allison Pfeiffer
Article
Sediment supply controls equilibrium channel geometry in gravel rivers
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) (2017)
  • Allison M. Pfeiffer, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Noah J. Finnegan, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • Jane K. Willenbring, University of California, San Diego
Link
Abstract
In many gravel-bedded rivers, floods that fill the channel banks create just enough shear stress to move the median-sized gravel particles on the bed surface (D50). Because this observation is common and is supported by theory, the coincidence of bankfull flow and the incipient motion of D50 has become a commonly used assumption. However, not all natural gravel channels actually conform to this simple relationship; some channels maintain bankfull stresses far in excess of the critical stress required to initiate sediment transport.
Keywords
  • River channel geometry,
  • Sediment supply,
  • Sediment transport
Disciplines
Publication Date
March 28, 2017
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1612907114
Publisher Statement


Citation Information
Pfeiffer, A. M., N. J. Finnegan, and J. K. Willenbring (2017), Sediment supply controls equilibrium channel geometry in gravel rivers, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 114(13), 3346–3351, doi:10.1073/pnas.1612907114