Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 107. Bedrock river channels are sites of primary erosion in the landscape, fixing the baselevel for all points upstream. This volume provides for the first time an integrated view of the characteristics and operation of this important, though hitherto neglected, class of channels. Examples are provided from several continents and cover a wide range of spatial scales from the large river basins (such as the Colorado River in the United States and the Indus River in Pakistan) down to reach scales and individual sites. Likewise the geologic timescales considered range from erosion and transportation during individual flows to accumulated effects over periods of tens of millions of years.

This illustrated introduction to geology offers young readers insights into everyday signs of our constantly changing environment. Fascinating subjects include rivers of ice, the rise of volcanoes, and the formation of precious stones.

A modern, quantitative, process-oriented approach to geomorphology and the role of Earth surface processes in shaping landforms, starting from basic principles.

This richly illustrated book is both a visitor’s guide to one of southwestern Ontario’s most striking landforms – the Elora Gorge on the Upper Grand River – and a thorough, accessible introduction to its natural and recent human history. The book introduces rivers that flow in bedrock, between rock walls and through precipitous gorges, unlike the subdued terrain that the last Ice Age bequeathed most of southwestern Ontario. It then leads the visitor to three viewpoints on and three excursions through the gorge, with a wealth of information about its rocks, fossils, caves, cliffs, rockslides, rockfalls, floods and erosional processes. It takes the reader through five “ages” of the gorge. In the First Age the gorge bedrock originated as reef limestone 430 million years ago in prehistoric tropical seas. The Second Age saw the gorge rocks make a great, 400-million-year journey from tropical seas to the heart of a continent via plate tectonics. In the Third Age, the retreating Laurentide Ice Sheet created conditions 17,000 to 15,000 years ago in which ice lobes, glacial lakes and meltwater spillways interacted to incise the gorge in an ice-free area known as the Ontario Island. In the Fourth Age the gorge, nestled in an immense forest, developed at a slower pace moderated by dense woods, fallen branches and beaver dams. In the Fifth Age, the gorge entered the Anthropocene as European settlers came to disrupt and dominate its development and unlock its secrets. Full of original photographs, maps and diagrams, Rivers in Rock is an authoritative guide to the Elora Gorge that will fascinate visitors and researchers alike.

Rivers are important agents of change that shape the Earth's surface and evolve through time in response to fluctuations in climate and other environmental conditions. They are fundamental in landscape development, and essential for water supply, irrigation, and transportation. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the geomorphological processes that shape rivers and that produce change in the form of rivers. It explores how the dynamics of rivers are being affected by anthropogenic change, including climate change, dam construction, and modification of rivers for flood control and land drainage. It discusses how concern about environmental degradation of rivers has led to the emergence of management strategies to restore and naturalize these systems, and how river management techniques work best when coordinated with the natural dynamics of rivers. This textbook provides an excellent resource for students, researchers, and professionals in fluvial geomorphology, hydrology, river science, and environmental policy.

Gravel-Bed Rivers: Processes, Tools, Environments presents a definitive review of current knowledge of gravel-bed rivers, derived from the 7th International Gravel-bed Rivers Workshop, the 5-yearly meeting of the world’s leading authorities in the field. Each chapter in the book has been specifically commissioned to represent areas in which recent progress has been made in the field. The topics covered also represent a coherent progression through the principal areas of the subject (hydraulics; sediment transport; river morphology; tools and methods; applications of science). Definitive review of the current knowledge of gravel-bed rivers Coverage of both fundamental and applied topics Edited by leading academics with contributions from key researchers Thoroughly edited for quality and consistency to provide coherent and logical progression through the principal areas of the subject.

This book presents practical hydraulic and river engineering research along with fluvial geomorphological concepts, and links the theoretical and practical knowledge of people working every day with rivers, streams, and hydraulic structures to fluvial geomorphology. Besides providing a guide for professionals, this book also provides material for students to acquire the knowledge and skills to rehabilitate rivers, streams, and waterways.

After publishing the famous “Fluvial Processes in Geomorphology” in the early 1960s, the work of Luna Leopold, Gordon Wolman, and John Miller became a key for opening the door to understanding rivers and streams. They first illustrated the problem to geomorphologists and geographers. Later, Chang, in his “Fluvial Processes in River Engineering”, provided a basis for engineers, showing this group of professionals how to deal with rivers and how to understand them. Since then, more informative studies have been published. Many of the authors started to combine fluvial geomorphology knowledge and river engineering needs, such as “Tools in Fluvial Geomorphology” by G. Mathias Kondolf and Hervé Piégay, or focused more on river engineering tasks, such as “Stream Restoration in Dynamic Fluvial Systems: Scientific Approaches” by Andrew Simon, Sean Bennett, and Janine Castro. Finally, Luna Leopold summarized river and stream morphologies in the beautiful “A view of the river”. It appears that we continue to explore this subject in the right direction. We better understand rivers and streams, and as engineers and fluvial geomorphologists, we can establish tools to help bring rivers alive. However, there is still a hunger for more scientific tools that we could use to further understand rivers and to support the development of healthy streams and rivers with high biodiversity in the present world, which has started to face water scarcity.

Rivers are the great shapers of terrestrial landscapes. Very few points on Earth above sea level do not lie within a drainage basin. Even points distant from the nearest channel are likely to be influenced by that channel. Tectonic uplift raises rock thousands of meters above sea level. Precipitation falling on the uplifted terrain concentrates into channels that carry sediment downward to the oceans and influence the steepness of adjacent hill slopes by governing the rate at which the landscape incises. Rivers migrate laterally across lowlands, creating a complex topography of terraces, floodplain wetlands and channels. Subtle differences in elevation, grain size, and soil moisture across this topography control the movement of ground water and the distribution of plants and animals. Rivers in the Landscape, Second Edition, emphasizes general principles and conceptual models, as well as concrete examples of each topic drawn from the extensive literature on river process and form. The book is suitable for use as a course text or a general reference on rivers. Aimed at advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and professionals looking for a concise summary of physical aspects of rivers, Rivers in the Landscape is designed to: emphasize the connectivity between rivers and the greater landscape by explicitly considering the interactions between rivers and tectonics, climate, biota, and human activities; provide a concise summary of the current state of knowledge for physical process and form in rivers; reflect the diversity of river environments, from mountainous, headwater channels to large, lowland, floodplain rivers and from the arctic to the tropics; reflect the diverse methods that scientists use to characterize and understand river process and form, including remote sensing, field measurements, physical experiments, and numerical simulations; reflect the increasing emphasis on quantification in fluvial geomorphology and the study of Earth surfaces in general; provide both an introduction to the classic, foundational papers on each topic, and a guide to the latest, particularly insightful and integrative references.