Bed forms in the Lower Red Deer River, Alberta

Abstract

Observations in the form of air photographs and echo soundings were made at various times over a period of 4 years on the Red Deer River near Duchess, Alberta. These revealed a complex system of both large- and small-scale features or wave forms on the sandy bed of the river. It is shown that the features, and with them the bed elevations at certain points, change considerably from time to time, and that the minor forms in particular change size rapidly in response to changes in flow. The observations are discussed in terms of some recent efforts towards classification of river-bed forms and towards relating their properties to hydraulic factors. It is suggested that very detailed and extensive field observations would be needed to fully describe the bed topography and its changes at similar locations, and that laboratory observations of bed-forms in flumes do not in general reflect the extreme complexity of river situations.