Human Impacts on Sediment and Morphodynamics of Large Tropical Rivers

Abstract

A significant number of studies have been done on several tropical rivers in the last few decades focusing on hydrogeomorphic processes, morphodynamics, soil erosion and sediment fluxes, environmental flow assessment, river responses to climate change, and human interventions on the rivers and basins. However, many rivers in the tropics are still understudied or are barely known to the global scientific audience. This is particularly sensitive because the environmental pressure on tropical rivers has increased rampantly during the last two decades. Eight of the ten largest rivers of the world in water discharge or “megarivers” are in tropical regions. This group of tropical megarivers includes some of the remaining less human-impacted rivers of the world (e.g., the Japura-Caquetá) and also some of the most hydrophysically impacted and polluted systems (e.g., Ganges).