Structural Levels and Morphodynamic Classification of Channel Braiding

摘要

Channel braiding (separation of river flow into branches) is shown to take place at several structural levels: point, middle-bar, insular (channel), floodplain-channel, and floodplain. Full classification of channel braiding cases is given. The types of braiding are determined that form morphologically homogeneous segments and govern the channel regime of rivers and those that have been formed by single or secondary forms and forms of the 2nd-3rd order, which hamper channel distribution and complicate its morphology. The results obtained in the study include relationships between the types and the structural levels of braiding; the morphological diversity of each type of braiding; their possible combinations; the occurrence in the mountain, semimountain, and lowland rivers; large, medium, and small rivers; under free and limited conditions of channel deformation development (in wide-floodplain and incised channels), in rivers with other morphodynamic types of channel (meandering or relatively linear).