How much progress has been made in understanding braided rivers dynamics in the last few years? What are likely to be the key areas of research in the coming years? Nine years after the second international conference on braided rivers (Birmingham, April 2003), a reconsideration of current and future progress in understanding braided rivers is now timely.
Since 2003, the development of remote sensing monitoring techniques (e.g. high resolution satellite images, airborne LiDAR, Terrestrial Laser Scanning) and improvements in modelling complex river morphologies (e.g. cellular models, 2D numerical schemes) have opened new possibilities to investigate the morphology and driving processes of braiding. This session aims to link new insights from field observation, physical and numerical modelling. In particular, we aim to explore how a better interconnection of these techniques may improve our knowledge on braided rivers. We welcome contributions addressing a wide range of spatial and temporal scales; e.g. from single flood events to long-term analysis of channel changes (annual to centennial); bar and island dynamics, bed-load transport measurements, size distribution and sorting effects, channel adjustments, and the role and dynamics of large wood are a few examples of possible topics.
Solicited Authors: Peter Ashmore and Yael Storz-Perez