The Shape of Rivers

Rivers

In this course, Dr Mark Smith (University of Leeds) guides us through the topic of rivers. In the first module, discuss the relevance of rivers to society, look at a cross section of a river to understand its structure and then look at some famous river examples across the world. In the second module, we look at hydrographs, discuss what they are and what they tell us and finish by trying to understand how hydrographs can change in response to different types of rainfall. In the third module we take a look at how the likelihood of flooding can be impacted both naturally and by humans, as well as flood events frequency on a global scale. In the fourth module, we turn our attention to how rivers erode landscapes and the kinds of landforms that we expect to see as a result. In the fifth module, we focus on the eroded sediment of a river, how it is transported, and some of the landscapes and features that sediment transport and deposition can produce. Finally, in the sixth and final module we discuss how rivers can be managed, both with hard and soft engineering techniques.

The Shape of Rivers

In this first module, we look at the shape over rivers and how it changes as a river flows through a landscape. We focus on: (i) the significance of rivers in our society; (ii) a cross section of a river, pointing out its key structures and features; (iii) some examples of rivers from across the world; (iv) how the shape of a river might change as it passes through a landscape, focussing on river discharge, velocity, gradient and depth; (v) a case study of a river in the UK (The River Wharfe).