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River
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see River (disambiguation).
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases a river flows into the ground and becomes dry
at the end of its course without reaching another body of water. Small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official
definitions for the generic term river as applied to geographic features,[1] although in some countries or communities a stream is defined by its size. Many names for small
rivers are specific to geographic location; examples are "run" in some parts of the United States, "burn" in Scotland and northeast England, and "beck" in northern England.
Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek,[2] but not always: the language is vague.[3]
Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Water generally collects in a river from precipitation through a drainage basin from surface runoff and other sources such as
groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of stored water in natural ice and snowpacks (e.g. from glaciers). Potamology is the scientific study of rivers while limnology is
the study of inland waters in general.
Extraterrestrial rivers have recently been found on Titan.[4][5] Channels may indicate past rivers on other planets, specifically outflow channels on Mars[6] and are theorised to
exist on planets and moons in habitable zones of stars.
Contents
1 Topography
1.1 Subsurface streams
1.2 Permanence of flow
2 Classification
2.1 Topographical classification
2.2 Biotic classification
2.3 Whitewater classification
2.4 Stream order classification
3 Uses
4 Ecosystem
5 Chemistry
6 Brackish water
7 Flooding
8 Flow
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8.1 Direction
8.2 Rate
9 Sediment yield
10 Management
11 See also
12 References
13 Further reading
14 External links
Topography
A river begins at a source (or more often several sources) and ends at a mouth, following a path called a course. The water in a river is
usually confined to a channel, made up of a stream bed between banks. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by floodwaters over-topping the channel. Floodplains may be very wide in relation to the size of the river channel. This distinction between
river channel and floodplain can be blurred, especially in urban areas where the floodplain of a river channel can become greatly
developed by housing and industry.
Rivers can flow down mountains, through valleys (depressions) or along plains, and can create canyons or gorges.
The term upriver (or upstream) refers to the direction towards the source of the river, i.e. against the direction of flow. Likewise, the
term downriver (or downstream) describes the direction towards the mouth of the river, in which the current flows.
Melting toe of Athabasca Glacier,
Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada
The term left bank refers to the left bank in the direction of flow, right bank to the right.
The river channel typically contains a single stream of water, but some rivers flow as several interconnecting streams of water,
producing a braided river. Extensive braided rivers are now found in only a few regions worldwide, such as the South Island of New
Zealand. They also occur on peneplains and some of the larger river deltas. Anastamosing rivers are similar to braided rivers and are
also quite rare. They have multiple sinuous channels carrying large volumes of sediment. There are rare cases of river bifurcation in
which a river divides and the resultant flows ending in different seas. An example is the bifurcation of Nerodime River in Kosovo.
A river flowing in its channel is a source of energy which acts on the river channel to change its shape and form. In 1757, the German
hydrologist Albert Brahms empirically observed that the submerged weight of objects that may be carried away by a river is
proportional to the sixth power of the river flow speed.[7] This formulation is also sometimes called Airy's law.[8] Thus, if the speed of
flow is doubled, the flow would dislodge objects with 64 times as much submerged weight. In mountainous torrential zones this can be
seen as erosion channels through hard rocks and the creation of sands and gravels from the destruction of larger rocks. In U-shaped
The Loboc River in Bohol,
Philippines
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glaciated valleys, the subsequent river valley can often easily be identified by the V-shaped channel that it has carved. In the middle
reaches where a river flows over flatter land, meanders may form through erosion of the river banks and deposition on the inside of
bends. Sometimes the river will cut off a loop, shortening the channel and forming an oxbow lake or billabong. Rivers that carry large
amounts of sediment may develop conspicuous deltas at their mouths. Rivers whose mouths are in saline tidal waters may form
estuaries.
Throughout the course of the river, the total volume of water transported downstream will often be a combination of the free water flow
together with a substantial volume flowing through sub-surface rocks and gravels that underlie the river and its floodplain (called the
hyporheic zone). For many rivers in large valleys, this unseen component of flow may greatly exceed the visible flow.
Subsurface streams
The River Cam from the Green
Dragon Bridge, Cambridge (United
Kingdom)
Most but not all rivers flow on the surface. Subterranean rivers flow underground in caves or caverns. Such rivers are frequently found
in regions with limestone geologic formations. Subglacial streams are the braided rivers that flow at the beds of glaciers and ice sheets,
permitting meltwater to be discharged at the front of the glacier. Because of the gradient in pressure due to the overlying weight of the glacier, such streams can even flow
uphill.
Permanence of flow
An intermittent river (or ephemeral river) only flows occasionally and can be dry for several years at a time. These rivers are found in regions with limited or highly variable
rainfall, or can occur because of geologic conditions such as a highly permeable river bed. Some ephemeral rivers flow during the summer months but not in the winter. Such
rivers are typically fed from chalk aquifers which recharge from winter rainfall. In England these rivers are called bournes and give their name to places such as Bournemouth
and Eastbourne. Even in humid regions, the location where flow begins in the smallest tributary streams generally moves upstream in response to precipitation and
downstream in its absence or when active summer vegetation diverts water for evapotranspiration. Normally-dry rivers in arid zones are often identified as arroyos or other
regional names.
Classification
Rivers have been classified by many criteria including their topography, their biotic status, their relevance to white water rafting or canoeing activities.
Topographical classification
Rivers can generally be classified as either alluvial, bedrock, or some mix of the two. Alluvial rivers have channels and floodplains that are self-formed in unconsolidated or
weakly consolidated sediments. They erode their banks and deposit material on bars and their floodplains. Bedrock rivers form when the river downcuts through the modern
sediments and into the underlying bedrock. This occurs in regions that have experienced some kind of uplift (thereby steepening river gradients) or in which a particular hard
lithology causes a river to have a steepened reach that has not been covered in modern alluvium. Bedrock rivers very often contain alluvium on their beds; this material is
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important in eroding and sculpting the channel. Rivers that go through patches of bedrock and
patches of deep alluvial cover are classified as mixed bedrock-alluvial.
Alluvial rivers can be further classified by their channel pattern as meandering, braided,
wandering, anastomose, or straight. The morphology of an alluvial river reach is controlled by a
combination of sediment supply, substrate composition, discharge, vegetation, and bed
aggradation.
At the turn of the 20th century William Morris Davis devised the "cycle of erosion" method of
classifying rivers based on their "age". Although Davis's system is still found in many books
today, after the 1950s and 1960s it became increasingly criticized and rejected by
geomorphologists. His scheme did not produce testable hypotheses and was therefore deemed
non-scientific.[9] Examples of Davis's river "ages" include:
Nile River delta, as seen from Earth
orbit. The Nile is an example of a
wave-dominated delta that has the
classic Greek letter delta () shape
after which river deltas were named.
Youthful river: A river with a steep gradient that has very few tributaries and flows quickly. Its
channels erode deeper rather than wider. Examples include the Brazos, Trinity and Ebro rivers.
Mature river: A river with a gradient that is less steep than those of youthful rivers and flows
more slowly. A mature river is fed by many tributaries and has more discharge than a youthful
river. Its channels erode wider rather than deeper. Examples include the Mississippi, Saint
Lawrence, Danube, Ohio, Thames and Paran rivers.
Old river: A river with a low gradient and low erosive energy. Old rivers are characterized by flood plains. Examples include the
Yellow, Ganges, Tigris, Euphrates, Indus and Nile rivers.
Rejuvenated river: A river with a gradient that is raised by tectonic uplift. Examples include the Rio Grande and Colorado
River.
The way in which a river's characteristics vary between the upper course and lower course of a river are summarized by the Bradshaw
model. Power-law relationships between channel slope, depth, and width are given as a function of discharge by "river regime".
Biotic classification
There are several systems of classification based on biotic conditions typically assigning classes from the most oligotrophic or
unpolluted through to the most eutrophic or polluted.[10] Other systems are based on a whole eco-system approach such as developed
by the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment.[11] In Europe, the requirements of the Water Framework Directive has led to the
development of a wide range of classification methods including classifications based on fishery status[12] A system of river zonation
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used in francophone communities[13][14] divides rivers into three primary zones:
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A radar image of a 400-kilometre
(250 mi) river of methane and ethane
near the north pole of Saturn's moon
Titan
The crenon is the uppermost zone at the source of the river. It is further divided into the eucrenon (spring or boil zone) and the
hypocrenon (brook or headstream zone). These areas are characterized by low temperatures, reduced oxygen content and slow
moving water.
The rhithron is the upstream portion of the river that follows the crenon. It is characterized by relatively cool temperatures, high
oxygen levels, and fast, turbulent, swift flow.
The potamon is the remaining downstream stretch of river. It is characterized by warmer temperatures, lower oxygen levels, slow flow and sandier bottoms.
Whitewater classification
The International Scale of River Difficulty is used to rate the challenges of navigationparticularly those with rapids. Class I is the easiest and Class VI is the hardest.
Stream order classification
The Strahler Stream Order ranks rivers based on the connectivity and hierarchy of contributing tributaries. Headwaters are first order while the Amazon River is twelfth order.
Approximately 80% of the rivers and streams in the world are of the first and second order.
Uses
Rivers have been used as a source of water, for obtaining food, for transport, as a defensive measure, as a source of hydropower to
drive machinery, for bathing, and as a means of disposing of waste.
Rivers have been used for navigation for thousands of years. The earliest evidence of navigation is found in the Indus Valley
Civilization, which existed in northwestern Pakistan around 3300 BC.[15] Riverine navigation provides a cheap means of transport, and
is still used extensively on most major rivers of the world like the Amazon, the Ganges, the Nile, the Mississippi, and the Indus. Since
river boats are often not regulated, they contribute a large amount to global greenhouse gas emissions, and to local cancer due to
inhaling of particulates emitted by the transports.[16][17]
In some heavily forested regions such as Scandinavia and Canada, lumberjacks use the river to float felled trees downstream to lumber
camps for further processing, saving much effort and cost by transporting the huge heavy logs by natural means.
Rivers have been a source of food since pre-history.[18] They can provide a rich source of fish and other edible aquatic life, and are a
major source of fresh water, which can be used for drinking and irrigation. It is therefore no surprise to find most of the major cities of
the world situated on the banks of rivers. Rivers help to determine the urban form of cities and neighbourhoods and their corridors
often present opportunities for urban renewal through the development of foreshoreways such as riverwalks. Rivers also provide an
Leisure activities on the River Avon
at Avon Valley Country Park,
Keynsham, United Kingdom. A boat
giving trips to the public passes a
moored private boat.
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easy means of disposing of waste-water and, in much of the less developed world, other wastes.
Fast flowing rivers and waterfalls are widely used as sources of energy, via watermills and hydroelectric plants. Evidence of watermills
shows them in use for many hundreds of years such as in Orkney at Dounby Click Mill. Prior to the invention of steam power,
water-mills for grinding cereals and for processing wool and other textiles were common across Europe. In the 1890s the first machines
to generate power from river water were established at places such as Cragside in Northumberland and in recent decades there has been
a significant increase in the development of large scale power generation from water, especially in wet mountainous regions such as
Norway.
The coarse sediments, gravel, and sand, generated and moved by rivers are extensively used in construction. In parts of the world this
can generate extensive new lake habitats as gravel pits re-fill with water. In other circumstances it can destabilise the river bed and the
course of the river and cause severe damage to spawning fish populations which rely on stable gravel formations for egg laying.
Watermill in Belgium
In upland rivers, rapids with whitewater or even waterfalls occur. Rapids are often used for recreation, such as whitewater kayaking.
Rivers have been important in determining political boundaries and defending countries. For example, the Danube was a long-standing border of the Roman Empire, and
today it forms most of the border between Bulgaria and Romania. The Mississippi in North America and the Rhine in Europe are major east-west boundaries in those
continents. The Orange and Limpopo Rivers in southern Africa form the boundaries between provinces and countries along their routes.
Ecosystem
Main article: River ecosystem
The organisms in the riparian zone respond to changes in river channel location and patterns of flow. The ecosystem of rivers is generally described by the river continuum
concept, which has some additions and refinements to allow for spatial (dams, waterfalls) and temporal (extensive flooding). The basic idea is that the river can be described
as a system that is continuously changing along its length in the physical parameters, the availability of food particles and the composition of the ecosystem. The food (energy)
that is the leftover of the upstream part is being utilized downstream.
The general pattern is that the first order streams contain particulate matter (decaying leaves from the surrounding forests), which is processed there by shredders like
Plecoptera larvae. The leftovers of the shredders are utilized by collectors, such as Hydropsychidae, and further downstream algae that create the primary production become
the main foodsource of the organisms. All changes are gradual and the distribution of each species can be described as a normal curve with the highest density where the
conditions are optimal. In rivers succession is virtually absent and the composition of the ecosystem stays fixed in time.
Chemistry
Main article: River chemistry
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The chemistry of rivers is complex and depends on inputs from the atmosphere, the geology through which it travels and the inputs from man's activities. The chemical
composition of the water has a large impact on the ecology of that water for both plants and animals and it also affects the uses that may be made of the river water.
Understanding and characterising river water chemistry requires a well designed and managed sampling and analysis.
Brackish water
Further information: Brackish water
Some rivers generate brackish water by having their river mouth in the ocean. This, in effect creates a unique environment in which certain species are found.
Flooding
Main article: Flood
Flooding is a natural part of a river's cycle. The majority of the erosion of river channels and the erosion and deposition on the
associated floodplains occur during flood stage. In many developed areas, human activity has changed river channel form, altering
different magnitudes and frequencies of flooding. Some examples of this are the building of levees, the straightening of channels, and
the draining of natural wetlands. In many cases human activities in rivers and floodplains have dramatically increased the risk of
flooding. Straightening rivers allows water to flow more rapidly downstream increasing the risk of flooding places further downstream.
Building on flood plains removes flood storage which again exacerbates downstream flooding. The building of levees may only protect
the area behind the levees and not those further downstream. Levees and flood-banks can also increase flooding upstream because of
the back-water pressure as the upstream flow is impeded by the narrow channel banks.
Flow
Flash flooding caused by a large
amount of rain falling in a short
amount of time
Studying the flows of rivers is one aspect of hydrology.[19]
Direction
Rivers flow downhill with their power derived from gravity. The direction can involve all directions of the compass and can be a complex meandering path.[20][21][22]
Rivers flowing downhill, from river source to river mouth, do not necessarily take the shortest path. For alluvial streams, straight and braided rivers have very low sinuosity
and flow directly down hill, while meandering rivers flow from side to side across a valley. Bedrock rivers typically flow in either a fractal pattern, or a pattern that is
determined by weaknesses in the bedrock, such as faults, fractures, or more erodible layers.
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Rate
Main article: Streamflow
Volumetric flow rate, also known as discharge, volume flow rate, and rate of water flow, is the volume of water which passes through a
given cross-section of the river channel per unit time. It is typically measured in cubic metres per second (cumec) or cubic feet per
second (cfs), where 1 m3/s = 35.51 ft3/s; it is sometimes also measured in litres or gallons per second.
Volumetric flow rate can be thought of as the mean velocity of the flow through a given cross-section, times that cross-sectional area.
Mean velocity can be approximated through the use of the Law of the Wall. In general, velocity increases with the depth (or hydraulic
radius) and slope of the river channel, while the cross-sectional area scales with the depth and the width: the double-counting of depth
shows the importance of this variable in determining the discharge through the channel.
Sediment yield
Sediment yield is the total quantity of particulate matter (suspended or bedload) reaching the outlet of a drainage basin over a fixed time
frame. Yield is usually expressed as kilograms per square kilometre per year. Sediment delivery processes are affected by a myriad of
factors such as drainage area size, basin slope, climate, sediment type (lithology), vegetation cover, and human land use / management
practices. The theoretical concept of the 'sediment delivery ratio' (ratio between yield and total amount of sediment eroded) captures the
fact that not all of the sediment is eroded within a certain catchment that reaches out to the outlet (due to, for example, deposition on
floodplains). Such storage opportunities are typically increased in catchments of larger size, thus leading to a lower yield and sediment
delivery ratio.
River meandering course
Management
Main article: River engineering
Rivers are often managed or controlled to make them more useful, or less disruptive, to human activity.
Dams or weirs may be built to control the flow, store water, or extract energy.
Levees, known as dikes in Europe, may be built to prevent river water from flowing on floodplains or floodways.
Canals connect rivers to one another for water transfer or navigation.
River courses may be modified to improve navigation, or straightened to increase the flow rate.
River management is a continuous activity as rivers tend to 'undo' the modifications made by people. Dredged channels silt up, sluice mechanisms deteriorate with age, levees
and dams may suffer seepage or catastrophic failure. The benefits sought through managing rivers may often be offset by the social and economic costs of mitigating the bad
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effects of such management. As an example, in parts of the developed world, rivers have been confined within channels to free up flat
flood-plain land for development. Floods can inundate such development at high financial cost and often with loss of life.
Rivers are increasingly managed for habitat conservation, as they are critical for many aquatic and riparian plants, resident and
migratory fishes, waterfowl, birds of prey, migrating birds, and many mammals.
See also
See also: geography, water cycle and drainage basin
River bank repair
Lists of rivers
List of rivers by length
List of rivers by continent
Drought
List of international border rivers
List of waterways
The Riverkeepers (book)
Salt tide
Water conflict
The Wikibook Historical
Geology has a page on the
topic of: Rivers
Crossings
Bridges
Ferries
Fords
Tunnels
Transport
Barge
Riverboat
Sailing
Towpath
References
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