Before revision: Although it is a simplistic approach to find the shear stress in what can often be a locally-unsteady fluvial system, when averaged over kilometer-scaled distances, these local variations average and the depth-slope product becomes a useful tool to understand shear stress in open channels such as rivers.
After revision: Although it is a simplistic approach to find the shear stress in what can often be a locally unsteady fluvial system, when averaged over kilometer-scaled distances, these local variations average and the depth-slope product becomes a useful tool to understand shear stress in open channels such as rivers.