a debris flow calendar derived from sediments of lake lago di braies n italy abstract in this study lake sediments were used for developing a high resolution calendar of past debris flow events debris flows frequently occur in the high alpine catchment of the lake lago di braies n italy while the coarse grained material accumulates on the debris flow cones the fine grained material is flushed into the lake this material forms characteristic layers in the lake sediments which are different from the typical annual lamination by analysing thin sections of sediment debris flow events of the last 2250 years were reconstructed with an annual resolution since debris flow frequency varies strongly periods with high and low frequencies can be distinguished however neither a debris flow magnitude frequency relationship nor a strong reaction of debris flow activity to past climate changes was identifiable in this study

influence of stress history on the strength parameters of an unsaturated statically compacted soil unsaturated soils are generally near the ground surface and are commonly overconsolidated due to environmental effects the stress state variables for an unsaturated in situ profile consist of the

river channel changes in the rhone delta france since the end of the little ice age geomorphological adjustment to hydroclimatic change and natural resource management abstract this study provides a representative example of a river affected by artificial width contraction and consequent bed incision in a context of sea level rise geomorphological adjustment in the rhone catchment since the final stage of the little ice age has been induced by hydroclimatic change and human disturbances these adjustments are examined to highlight the response of two sand bed distributary channels of the rhone delta by using methods such as sedimentological evidence historical sources planimetric resurvey repeated longitudinal and cross profiling and hydraulic data the geomorphological and hydraulic responses to channel changes are characterised and their consequences assessed it is shown that the reduction of sediment yield is a combined effect of a decrease of flood frequency sediment dredging and building of dams on the rhone river and its tributaries the combination of decreased catchment sediment yield artificial width contraction increased stream power and boundary shear stress is the cause of channel incision of the rhone river in the coastal zone the increase of the rhone river s stream power has facilitated the transport of sediment down to the subdeltas engineering works designed to stabilise the planform and to limit overbank flooding caused 1 channel entrenchment thus 2 the destabilization of infrastructure e g bridges quays along the river 3 the lowering of the phreatic water table in the floodplain which in turn induced 4 soil salinization change in salt wedge position eventually the channelization led to 5 an increase of the flood hazard and risks because although more rare the inundations have become more destructive however the contribution of the large flood events is negligible in terms of progressive channel in filling because of their low frequency finally no relation exists between the vertical adjustment of the rhone channel through entrenchment and relative sea level which rose at a rate of up to 2 mm year 1 during the 20th century clearly natural resource management in particular engineering activities were the main cause of the river channel changes that occurred during the last century

the value of lichenometry and historical archives in assessing the incision of submediterranean rivers from the little ice age in the ardeche and upper loire france the geomorphologic impact of the little ice age lia was determined on two french mediterranean rivers the upper ardeche and the upper loire in order to evaluate the impact of the lia on the hydrology of these rivers two historical flood chronicles were made from historical sources the lia can be divided in three phases of high activity 1530 1700 1750 1810 1840 1910 a geomorphologic study of the two rivers shows that incision is the principle process at work in the 20th century in order to date the low terraces and bedforms present in both valleys lichenometry was used rhizocarpon geographicum allowed the main features on the bottom of the valley to be dated using two growth curves made for the two studied areas in the ardeche lichenometric dating showed a progressive evacuation of the inherited alluvial stock the oldest lichens found on the foodplain and the outcrops indicate that incision began between the second half of the 17th century and the end of the 18th century in the mid little ice age incision stopped on the bedrock in the second half of the 19th century in the loire the narrowness of the gorge did not allow sediment to be stored during the first half of the lia very old lichens 1000 yr of age are present on the bedrock close to the bed however at a number of locations the valley slightly widens allowing sediment that was transiting through the gorge to be stored the geomorphologic features that characterise these basins clearly show a hydrosedimentary behaviour different before and after the beginning of the 20th century

morphological analysis of the drainage system in the eastern alps abstract we study the morphology of the major rivers draining the eastern alps to test whether the active tectonics of this part of the orogen is reflected in the shape of channel profiles of the river network in our approach we compare channel profiles measured from digital elevation models with numerically modelled channel profiles using a stream power approach it is shown that regions of high stream power coincide largely with regions of highest topography and largest uplift rates while the forelands and the pannonian basin are characterised by a significantly lower stream power from stream power modelling we conclude that there is young uplift at the very east of the eastern alps in the bohemian massif and in the pohorje range the impact of the pleistocene glaciations is explored by comparing properties of rivers that drain in proximal and distal positions relative to the ice sheet during the last glacial maximum our analysis shows that most knick points wind gaps and other non equilibrium features of catchments covered by ice during the last glaciations salzach enns can be correlated with glacial processes in contrast the ice free catchments of the mur and drava are characterized by channels in morphological equilibrium at the first approximation and are showing only weak evidence of the strong tectonic activity within these catchments finally the channel profiles of the adige and the divide between the upper rhine and danube catchments differ significantly from the other catchments we relate this to the fact that the adige and the rhine respond to different base levels from the remainder of the eastern alps the adige may preserve a record from the messininan base level change and the rhine is subject to the base level lowering in the rhine graben

how natural are alpine mountain rivers evidence from the italian alps historical human induced channel adjustments in lowland gravel bed rivers have been documented in several geographical contexts worldwide in particular it is now widely accepted that the vast majority of european rivers are far from any natural reference state prior to anthropic disturbances and a complete restoration is hardly achievable however few investigations have addressed changes that have occurred in mountain rivers of the alps and these channels are commonly reckoned quite natural by society this paper intends to describe how human pressure on italian alpine basins has been quite relevant for several centuries in terms of land use variations in channel structures timber transport splash damming and riparian vegetation management such that nowadays reference conditions cannot be found even in small mountain creeks in addition recent natural climatic variations e g the little ice age are superimposed on human disturbances thus defying the definition of any equilibrium morphological conditions even under human free states a summary of published as well as unpublished works on historical channel adjustments in rivers of the italian alps is presented in order to document the impacts deriving from human pressure at different basin scales and for different river morphologies from steep confined streams to large unconfined rivers general options for river management and restoration actions aiming to combine geomorphological functionality and flood hazard mitigation are discussed in the light of the current european legislative context copyright 2011 john wiley sons ltd

a glacier inventory for south tyrol italy based on airborne laser scanner data a new approach to glacier inventory based on airborne laser scanner data has been applied to south tyrol italy it yields highly accurate results with a minimum of human supervision earlier inventories from 1983 and 1997 are used to compare changes in area volume and equilibrium line altitude a reduction of 32 was observed in glacier area from 1983 to 2006 volume change derived from the 1997 and 2006 digital elevation models was 1 037 km 3 and an ela rise of 54 m to almost 3000 m a s l was calculated for this period losses vary widely for individual glaciers but have accelerated for all south tyrolean glaciers since the first inventory in 1983

recent channel adjustments in alluvial rivers of tuscany central italy drastic channel adjustments have affected the main alluvial rivers of tuscany central italy during the 20th century bed level adjustments were identified both by comparing available topographic longitudinal profiles of different years and through field observations changes in channel width were investigated by comparing available aerial photographs 1954 and 1993 98 bed incision represents the dominant type of vertical adjustment and is generalized along all the fluvial systems investigated the arno river system is the most affected by bed level lowering up to 9 m whereas lower incision generally less than 2 m is observed along the rivers of the southern part of the region human disturbances appear to be the dominant factors of adjustments the main phase of vertical change occurred during the period 1945 80 in concomitance with the phase of maximum sediment mining activity at the regional scale the second dominant type of adjustment that involved most of the rivers in the region consists of a narrowing of the active channel based on measurements of channel width conducted on aerial photographs 38 of the reaches analysed experienced a narrowing greater than 50 of the initial channel width the largest values of channel narrowing were observed along initially braided or sinuous with alternate bars morphologies in the southern portion of the region a regional scheme of channel adjustments is derived based on initial channel morphology and on the amounts of incision and narrowing different styles of channel adjustments are described rivers that were originally sinuous with alternate bars to braided generally became adjusted by a moderate incision and a moderate to intense narrowing in contrast sinuous meandering channels mainly adjusted vertically with a minor amount of narrowing copyright 2003 john wiley sons ltd

impacts of reforestation and gravel mining on the malnant river haute savoie french alps the malnant river is a rapidly incising river with a french name that translates as bad creek reflecting local opinion of the hazards from dramatic channel changes that have occurred in the last few centuries downcutting in the last three decades has created severe problems for farmers in this small watershed 16 km 2 as bridges are undermined streamside roads are threatened and irrigation diversion structures are rendered unusable the purpose of our study was to determine the extent and causes of downcutting a detailed landcover map dated 1732 revealed that forest cover had been reduced by that time to 10 of the present day cover the malnant was strongly affected by floods and debris torrents during the 18th and 19th centuries that delivered massive amounts of sediment during the 20th century reforestation reduced the sediment delivery from hillslopes in addition gravel extraction in the malnant and in the fier river of which the malnant is a tributary has lowered the base level for the river this initiated a knickpoint that moved upstream weirs placed in the malnant in 1968 were used to measure rates of bed incision in the field with a mean width of 4 0 m and degradation up to 36 cubic meters per meter channel length the lower 4 5 km of the malnant has experienced a net loss of approximately 163 000 m 3 of bed material above the 4 5 km point on the

causes of 20th century channel narrowing in mountain and piedmont rivers of southeastern france extensive channel narrowing in southeastern france provides an illustration of geomorphic response to land use changes the study region comprises a range of environments from large piedmont and intramountain gravel bed rivers to small mountain streams field measurements and analysis of historical data demonstrate two distinct periods of channel change from 1850 to 1950 channel narrowing is interpreted to be the result of a recovery process in response to widespread channel destabilization induced by major floods during the second half of the 19th century at the time the largely deforested basins were highly responsive to flooding whereas the recovery process was accelerated by floodplain and basin scale land use changes afforestation and torrential control works which in turn reduced sediment delivery and enabled vegetation development in channels from 1950 to 1970 channel narrowing accelerated in most of the studied rivers this recent phenomenon is considered as a human induced fluvial adjustment directly related to forest development on river margins and human abandonment of intensive floodplain land uses at the same time long profile degradation occurred as a result of long term bedload supply decrease in small mountain streams channel narrowing is mainly explained by channel incision which seems to progress from upstream where sediment sources are progressively stabilized by afforestation copyright 2002 john wiley sons ltd

detailed chronology of mid altitude fluvial system response to changing climate and societies at the end of the little ice age southwestern alps and cevennes france abstract over a historical timescale landscapes have been strongly affected by fluctuations in climate and by the impact of human societies this study examines the historical evolution of mid altitude fluvial systems in the western alps and cevennes se massif central in the context of marked climate and anthropogenic change at the end of the little ice age late 19th century this work contributes to the reconstruction of river paleodynamics by investigating the nature and chronology of geomorphological changes in upper river basins in order to produce a detailed reconstruction of hydromorphological changes we combined two approaches the study of historical archives and the use of bioindicators the dating of terraces using dendrochronology and of silt benches using lichenometry in order to reconstruct the evolution of the river channels the 19th century is a particularly propitious period for the study of surface dynamics because archives have preserved a wealth of qualitative and quantitative data concerning rivers economic statistics meteorological and hydrological observations illustrative documents descriptions by contemporary observers it is also a period for which reliable dating methods are available for detrital deposits in rivers the period provides new information on how the transition between the little ice age and current climate conditions affected the evolution of drainage basins and stream channels by highlighting a succession of phases in the erosive process e g the preparatory role of the drought of 1830 1838 in the erosion crisis of 1855 1870 and refining the chronology of events very early onset of riverbed incision the results highlight the effect of climate small hydroclimatic fluctuations amplified by strong anthropization on the rhythm of landscape change and on the relative stabilization of the landscape at the end of the 19th century in addition the synchronization of phenomena on the two sides of the rhone valley shows that these changes took place on a regional scale

assessment of channel changes due to long term bedload supply decrease roubion river france this paper presents the observations made in the watershed of the upper roubion river which drains a submediterranean mountainous environment and in two of its main tributaries the soubrion and bine creeks our aim was to analyze contemporary morphological and sedimentary changes in response to a progressive decrease in bedload supply this decrease is linked to an increase of forest cover in the watershed during the 20th century following rural depopulation and to a correlated decrease in peak flows several variables were systematically measured width slope bed level change sediment size along 23 km of river whereas dendrochronological data floodplain cross sections and estimated recurrence intervals of sediment entrainment based on critical shear stress calculations were also produced for specific sites to complete our analysis evidence of three major phenomena was obtained on both the roubion and its tributaries i bed degradation ii development of stable pavement in incised reaches and iii channel narrowing associated with the development of alluvial forest on recently abandoned portions of the pre existing active channel forest development began in the 1950s these three phenomena show positively covariant relationships that lead us to propose a descriptive model of mountain fluvial system adjustments to progressive decrease of bedload

climatic warming glacier recession and runoff from alpine basins after the little ice age maximum records of discharge of rivers draining alpine basins with between 0 and 70 ice cover in the upper aare and rhone catchments switzerland for the period 1894 2006 have been examined together with climatic data for 1866 2006 with a view to assessing the effects on runoff from glacierized basins of climatic warming coupled with glacier recession following the little ice age maximum annual runoff from ice free basins reflects precipitation variations rising from minima between 1880 and 1910 to maxima between the late 1960s and early 1980s the more highly glacierized the basin the more runoff mimicked mean may september air temperature during two periods of warming runoff increased gradually from the 1900s rapidly in the 1940s before decreasing to the late 1970s rising runoff levels during the second warming period failed to exceed those attained during the first despite higher summer temperatures although temperatures continued to rise discharge from glacierized basins declined after reaching maxima in the late 1980s to early 1990s in the first warming period rising specific melt rates augmented by increasing precipitation opposed the impact of declining glacier area on runoff although melt continued to increase in the second period enhanced melting even in the exceptionally warm summer of 2003 appears to have been insufficient to offset reducing glacier surface area exposed to melt low or reducing levels of precipitation and increasing evaporation thus runoff from glacierized basins peaked in the late 1940s to early 1950s

sediment transfer processes in two alpine catchments of contrasting morphological settings summary coarse sediment transport processes in steep headwater streams may vary between bedload and debris flows events depending on basin geomorphology and sediment supply this paper compares two small catchments drainage area 4 5 km 2 located in the eastern italian alps where the dominant sediment transport processes differ substantially i e debris flows in the moscardo torrent and bedload events in the rio cordon the two basins were selected because they provided the unique opportunity to analyze long term data of debris flow and bedload volumes respectively the two basins are compared in terms of peak discharge event duration and magnitude frequency characteristics of transported sediment volumes additional bedload data from two more alpine experimental basins are also considered the results show that for comparable recurrence intervals debris flow volumes are 2 3 orders of magnitude larger than bedload volumes this contrasting sediment transfer activity can be attributed to different basin and channel morphologies which are analyzed in terms of sediment supply conditions longitudinal profiles and slope area curves

the complexity of the real world in the context of the field tradition in geomorphology abstract among the dominant twentieth century conceptual models of geomorphology that rely on insights resulting from field based research are stanley a schumm s formulations of complex response intrinsic thresholds river metamorphosis and spatial zonation of drainage basins schumm s research focused primarily on finer grained alluvial channels in lower relief environments as a result of his work most investigators now approach river process and form within a framework based on three fundamental assumptions first channel changes are abrupt and driven by crossing external and internal thresholds second channel change is likely to be asynchronous resulting in different portions of a river or a river network behaving in very different manners at a given point in time third different portions of a river network are dominated by distinct disturbance regimes and resulting suites of geomorphic processes and forms more recent research on resistant boundary mountain channels illustrates how field evidence demonstrates that river process and form are inherently nonlinear with spatial and temporal thresholds multithread channels can form within unconfined valley segments in mountainous river networks of the colorado front range but only in the presence of biotic drivers in the form of i old growth forest that facilitates the formation of closely spaced channel spanning logjams or ii beavers that build dams thresholds of channel and valley geometry govern the occurrence and persistence of jams and dams and these channel obstructions initiate specific nonlinear responses in valley and channel form when the biotic drivers are removed river metamorphosis occurs alluvial channels which are typically regarded as being relatively responsive to changes in water and sediment yield and substrate composition and channels with more resistant boundaries that typically respond to external changes over longer timespans exhibit nonlinear complex behavior in both cases the nonlinear behavior of rivers with numerous interdependent variables multiple internal and external thresholds and complex responses would be difficult to conceptualize and quantify in the absence of extensive field data one of the management implications of complex nonlinear behavior is that a one size fits all approach to managing rivers is inadequate field research initially focused on understanding specific examples of river process and form revealed underlying patterns that give rise to conceptual models broadly applicable within fluvial geomorphology

channel adjustments and vegetation cover dynamics in a large gravel bed river over the last 200 years article i nfo the timing and extent of the morphological changes that occurred in the last 200 years in a large gravel bed river the piave river eastern italian alps that was heavily impacted by human activities training structures hydropower schemes and gravel mining have been analyzed by historical maps aerial photos repeated topographic measurements and geomorphological surveys results show that the channel underwent a strong narrowing during the twentieth century but with a faster pace during the 1970s 1990s and with an associated shift from a dominant braided pattern to a wandering morphology bed incision up to 2 m mostly from gravel mining has been documented for this period large areas of the former active channel were colonized by riparian forests both as islands and as marginal woodlands the ceasing of gravel extraction in the late 1990s seems to have determined a reversal in the evolutionary trend with evidence of vegetation erosion channel widening even though a significant aggradation phase is not present we conclude that alteration of sediment regime has played a major role on the long term channel evolution however only relevant flood events rin10 15 years appear to determine substantial island erosion and therefore the proportion of island vs channel area fluctuates depending on flood history

simulation of atmospheric boundary layer characteristics during indian summer monsoon using observations from monsoon trough boundary layer experiment at jodhpur india the diurnal structure of the boundary layer during indian summer monsoon period is studied using a one dimensional meteorological boundary layer model and the observations collected from the monsoon trough boundary layer experiment conducted in 1990 at jodhpur india the model was initialized with the observed temperature profiles at 0530 lst on 17 july 1990 at jodhpur and was run for 26 hours the study is carried out with a geostrophic wind speed of 9 5 m s 1 corresponding to the strong wind simulation the mean thermodynamic and wind structure simulated by the model are in good agreement with those observed from 30 m tower the computed surface layer characteristics such as the surface fluxes tke and standard deviations of velocity components are found to be reasonably in good agreement with those based on turbulence measurements the shear and buoyancy budget computed from the model are also compared with the turbulence measurements the integrated cooling budget in the nocturnal boundary layer is examined

morphological changes in alpine rivers following the end of the little ice age abstract this work investigates the channel changes of alpine rivers from the end of the little ice age 1850s to the 1950s with the aim to determine the possible role of climatic variations occurred in this period before the onset of anthropic pressures i e dams check dams bank protections and gravel mining the research was conducted on 17 river catchments of south tyrol northern italy glaciated and unglaciated a multitemporal gis analysis approach was adopted to assess the morphological changes in terms of channel width and pattern from three different sources i austrian cadastral map 1858 ii maps from the italian institute of military geography 1917 1925 and iii two aerial photo sets taken in 1945 and 1954 the analysed river network a total of 480 km was subdivided into 162 morphologically homogeneous reaches 76 confined 81 partly confined and 5 unconfined with lengths ranging from 630 to 5500 m slope from 0 3 to 24 and drained area from 20 to 4000 km 2 the statistical relationships among morphological changes and reach and basin scale factors were analysed by univariate and multivariate methods and the relationships between width changes and 36 controlling factors were explored using principal component analysis the variability in width and morphological pattern changes were very pronounced between and within single rivers highlighting the value of such a large data set overall the analysed rivers varied their morphological pattern mostly exhibiting a shift from multithread transitional to single thread patterns but unchanged planform types were also common variations in channel width varied substantially among the analysed rivers which featured narrowing slightly prevailing and widening the least common as well as many cases of very limited changes channel width variations appear statistically although weakly related to some morphometric variables and significant differences emerge comparing glaciated vs unglaciated basins climate related variations glacier dynamics and channel disturbance frequency are argued to be the dominant factors that affected channel variations

conceptual model for complex river responses using an expanded lane s relation abstract in 1955 lane introduced the qualitative expression qws qsds to relate water discharge qw channel slope s sediment discharge or load qs and a representative bed sediment size ds for a river reach under dynamic equilibrium conditions for over 50 years lane s relation has provided a unique conceptual model useful to engineers geomorphologists and educators for visualizing and describing the concept of dynamic equilibrium in rivers however the ability of lane s relation to describe river adjustments is inherently limited because the expression cannot account for the changes in cross sectional planform and bedform geometry that are typically associated with complex channel adjustments by demonstrating that qs is inversely proportional to the width to depth ratio w d we expand lane s relation to include the width to depth ratio as a cross sectional geometry term qws qsds w d we further demonstrate that the slope term s is proportional to the total change in elevation along a channel z and inversely proportional to sinuosity p and bedform amplitude h a s z p h a the introduction of the width to depth ratio and expressing channel slope in terms of channel geometry expands the original lane s relation to explicitly include measures of cross sectional planform and bedform geometry as additional degrees of freedom this significantly broadens the usefulness of lane s original relation as a conceptual model and allows the visualization of complex river responses that commonly involve adjustments to cross sectional planform and or bedform geometry

evolutionary trajectory of channel morphology and controlling factors in a large gravel bed river abstract interpretation of channel changes is not always straightforward since it requires a detailed reconstruction of the evolutionary trajectory of channel morphology a quantitative analysis of controlling factors and finally identification of links between evolutionary trajectories and controlling factors the aim of this paper is to explain channel adjustments and controlling factors in the tagliamento river a large gravel bed river in northeastern italy traditional methods for studying historical channel changes i e use of aerial photos topographic data were employed but numerical modelling turned out to be very useful for the quantification of bedload transport and for supporting interpretation of past changes and likely future channel evolution river channel underwent three main phases of adjustment over the last 200 years the first two phases from the end of the nineteenth century to the early 1990s were characterized by narrowing channel width decreased from 1250 to 540 m and incision about 1 m and the third phase from the 1990s to present day by widening from 540 to 600 m and slight aggradation about 0 2 m combining evolutionary trajectories of channel morphology and analysis of controlling factors we argue that the long term channel evolution of the tagliamento river was driven mainly by human intervention at the reach scale i e sediment mining and channelization changes in sediment supply in the catchment area had no or minor effects in the study reach the most recent changes i e widening and slight aggradation are explained as a response to past disturbances that have produced a remarkable change of channel geometry and an increase of unit stream power in the reach magnitude and frequency of formative discharges are a key driving factor of the intensity of recent changes while this was not the case during the previous phases of adjustment

bedload hysteresis in a glacier fed mountain river sediment transport during flood events often reveals hysteretic patterns because flow discharge can peak before counterclockwise hysteresis or after clockwise hysteresis the peak of bedload hysteresis in sediment transport has been used in the literature to infer the degree of sediment availability counterclockwise and clockwise hysteresis have been in fact interpreted as limited and unlimited sediment supply conditions respectively hysteresis has been mainly explored for the case of suspended sediment transport but it was rarely reported for bedload transport in mountain streams this work focuses on the temporal variability of bedload transport in an alpine catchment saldur basin 18 6 km2 italian alps where bedload transport was monitored by means of an acoustic pipe sensor which detects the acoustic vibrations induced by particles hitting a 0 5m long steel pipe runoff dynamics are dominated by snowmelt in late spring early summer mostly by glacier melt in late summer early autumn and by a combination of the snow and glacier melt in mid summer the results indicate that hysteretic patterns during daily discharge fluctuations are predominantly clockwise during the snowmelt period likely due to the ready availability of unpacked sediments within the channel or through bank erosion in the lower part of the basin on the contrary counterclockwise hysteresis tend to be more frequent during late glacier melting period possibly due to the time lag needed for sediment provided by the glacial and peri glacial area to be transported to the monitoring section however intense rainfall events occurring during the glacier melt period generated predominantly clockwise hysteresis thus indicating the activation of different sediment sources these results indicate that runoff generation processes play a crucial role on sediment supply and temporal availability in mountain streams

contemporary channel changes in the eygues basin southern french prealps the relationship of subbasin variability to watershed characteristics the southern french prealps are sub mediterranean mountains in which forest cover has increased since the end of the 19th century forest development linked with agricultural decline and planned reafforestation has induced a decrease of bedload supply from hillslopes in response to this evolution several channel changes are observed in mountain streams channel narrowing channel degradation and pavement development the intensity of these adjustments differs from one stream to another twenty catchments 10 100 km2 located in the eygues river basin 1150 km2 a tributary of the rhone river are studied to highlight the subbasin variability of channel changes and to give causal interpretations we conducted field surveys and analyzed aerial photographs to characterize present channel morphology and contemporary channel changes and gis was used to quantify morphometry relief land use and geology of the watersheds multivariate statistical analysis determined relations between channel changes and watershed characteristics the potential bedload supply of these mountain streams is controlled largely by watershed morphometry and land use the most active tributaries of the eygues river are characterized mainly by high drainage density and poor vegetation cover linked to agricultural land use

a conceptual model for alpine proglacial river channel evolution under changing climatic conditions this paper integrates concepts derived from the literature to focus upon interactions between riparian vegetation and river channel dynamics in alpine glacier basins discussion of the nature and variability of discharge and sediment regimes of alpine glacier fed rivers downstream variations in the physical character of the river channel and corridor consequent downstream variations in lateral processes and regional variations in alpine glacier dynamics lead to the proposal of a conceptual model of proglacial river channel riparian vegetation interactions under changing climatic conditions