Statistical Analysis of Meandering River Geometry

摘要

An investigation of the geometry of two natural meandering rivers, the Wabash River and the White River in Indiana, is described. Local curvature series were used to describe the meandering intensity. The power spectra of local curvature series were adopted to characterize the meander wavelengths. Relationships between absolute curvature, width, thalweg depth and cross sectional area have been suggested by their cross-correlation functions and cross-spectra. Two groups of factors: (1) geology and soil; (2) flow rate and channel slope were postulated to be major factors to affect the meander planform for the rivers studied. A program to analyze the non-stationary data has been developed and applied to the curvature series. It appears to provide an objective way to describe details of a meandering river. (Author)