Abstract
River confluences are the key features of the drainage basins, as their hydrological, geomorphological, and ecological nature strongly influences the downstream river characteristics. The river reaches near the coastal zones, which also makes them under the influence of tidal currents in addition to their runoff. This causes a bi-directional flow and makes the study of confluences more interesting and complex in these areas. There is a reciprocal adjustment of flow, sediment, and morphology at a confluence, and its behaviors, differ greatly in tidal and non-tidal environments. Existing studies of the river junctions provide a good account of information about the hydrodynamics and bed morphology of the confluent areas, especially the unidirectional ones. The main factors which affect the flow field include the angle of confluence, flow-related ratios (velocity, discharge, and momentum) of the merging streams, and bed discordance. Hydraulically, six notable zones are identified for unidirectional confluences. However, for bi-directional (tidal) junctions, hydrodynamic zones always remain in transition but repeat in a cycle and make four different arrangements of flow features. This study discusses the hydrodynamics, sediment transport, morphological changes, and the factors affecting these processes and reviews the recent research about the confluences for these issues. All of these studies provide insights into the morpho-dynamics in tidal and non-tidal confluent areas.
Highlights
River confluence is an essential geomorphological node that controls the downstream routing of flow and sediment
Much of the persisting research focuses on the morpho-dynamic evolution of a confluence and their interdependencies on the runoff river
Field investigations [5,21,22], laboratory experiments [6,23,24,25], and numerical simulations [14,26,27,28,29,30], Both models emphasize that the hydrodynamics, the carried sediment, and the river complementing each other, are common methods to help understand the morpho-dynamics of a morphology are interlinked
Summary
River confluence is an essential geomorphological node that controls the downstream routing of flow and sediment. Field investigations [5,21,22], laboratory experiments [6,23,24,25], and numerical simulations [14,26,27,28,29,30], Both models emphasize that the hydrodynamics, the carried sediment, and the river complementing each other, are common methods to help understand the morpho-dynamics of a morphology are interlinked This interaction is a never-ending cycle of taking feedback from each confluence. Non-tidal environments, this paper reviews their flow features, sediment transportation, morphological characteristics, and their interactions Both models emphasize that the hydrodynamics, the carried sediment, and the river. Based on the available literature regarding the confluences in tidal and non-tidal environments, this paper reviews their flow features, Figure sediment transportation, morphological their interactions. Unification of conceptual models bycharacteristics, Leeder [11] and and Ashworth and Ferguson [12]
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