Model describes river meandering

Abstract

Understanding and predicting the evolution of meandering rivers could be useful to geoscientists as well as to engineers who may be dealing with practical problems related to river movement. Asahi et al. created a computational model for predicting the evolution of complex meandering rivers that captures short‐term processes, such as flooding, and ­longer‐term processes. The model considers bank erosion, land accretion along meander bends, and the formation of channel cutoffs and describes how river width and sinuosity evolve together. In general, the authors found that discharge variation plays an important role in the shape and behavior of river meanders. They note that their model produces a rich pattern of meander evolution that appears to be consistent with that observed in natural rivers.