Flood Plains

Abstract

A Frequently quoted definition of a flood plain is that of Rice (1949, p. 139): ‘a strip of relatively smooth land bordering a stream [and] overflowed in times of high water’. Valley flats which would usually be considered flood plains, on this definition, include features formed by such processes as landslides and the building of low-angle fans. But the most important process resulting in the formation of valley flats is a combination of deposition on the inside of river curves and deposition from overbank flows. This process has produced many of the flat areas adjacent to river channels, and is probably responsible for most of the flood plains of the great rivers of the world. It is with this particular process that the present paper is concerned.KeywordsFlood PlainRecurrence IntervalAnnual FloodNatural LeveeDamage StageThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.