Coupling sediment supply, transport capacity and river channel geometry

In this talk I will present results from recent work where we have tried to quantify the effects of sediment supply on channel morphology. Estimates of sediment supply are based on modeled relations for bed load transport capacity, determined from field data collected on gravel bed rivers in five geographic regions of the western United States. The model relations suggest that, within individual regions, the total bed load flux scales approximately linearly with drainage area. Across the regions, however, the bed load flux varies by over four orders of magnitude, with rock type exerting a dominant role on sediment supply.