Techniques to quantify the variability of thalweg profiles

摘要

This paper presents a range of techniques for quantifying the variability of thalweg profiles. Previous research has shown that the thalweg is an important morphological and ecological feature in stream systems, however, the tools to measure the morphological diversity of thalweg profiles are limited (at the reach scale using a horizontal interval of ～2 m). The methods presented are evaluated against synthetic data to determine which techniques would be most appropriate for quantifying thalweg data collected in the field. The results suggest that three techniques are the most appropriate for quantifying thalweg diversity (the wiggliness factor w, fractal dimension D, and standard deviation of depths).