9.32 Large River Floodplains

doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-374739-6.00258-X

Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences

Treatise on Geomorphology

Volume 9, 2013, Pages 645-678

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Abstract

The size and complexity of large floodplains result from the hydroclimatic and tectonic settings required to produce large rivers with copious sediment supplies and adequate accommodation space, and also from certain scale-dependent processes. Water and sediment exchanges with the channel determine the construction and preservation of floodplain landforms. The intensity of plant colonization as well as physical and chemical changes to the accumulated sediment, play important roles in stabilizing floodplain sediment, affecting its residence time and geomorphology. These features, together with the time available for the adjustment of tectonic, climatic, or eustatic changes, affect the geometry and behavior of large-river floodplains.

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Thomas Dunne is a Professor of Environmental Science and Management and of Earth Science at the University of California Santa Barbara, USA. He obtained a BA from Cambridge University in Geography in 1964 and a Ph.D. in Geography from The Johns Hopkins University in 1969. He taught Physical Geography at the University of Nairobi and McGill University, Montreal, and Geological Sciences at the University of Washington, Seattle, before moving to the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management in 1995. He has conducted research on hydrology, erosion, river sedimentation, and geomorphology in East Africa, northern Canada, Japan, Brazil, and Bolivia, as well as various regions of the United States.

Rolf Aalto is an Associate Professor of Geography in the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Exeter. He obtained a BA in Geology and Applied Mathematics from the University of California (Berkeley) in 1993, an MS (1995), and a Ph.D. (2002) in Geological Sciences from the University of Washington. He conducted research as a post-doc at UC Berkeley and taught fluvial geomorphology at the University of Washington before moving to the University of Exeter in 2007. He has investigated the fluvial geomorphology of large rivers in Bolivia, Peru, Papua New Guinea, California, Cambodia, Romania, and Venezuela, as well as river basin processes within smaller catchments in the USA, Europe, and Africa.

^☆: Dunne, T., Aalto, R.E., 2013. Large river floodplains. In: Shroder, J. (Editor in Chief), Wohl, E. (Ed.), Treatise on Geomorphology. Academic Press, San Diego, CA, vol. 9, Fluvial Geomorphology, pp. 645–678.

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