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Abstract

Neck and chute cutoffs along meandering rivers are near-instantaneous morphodynamic perturbations that drive modification of planform channel geometry and kinematics at the cutoff site and in adjacent bends. Despite their ubiquity, quantitative and predictive linkages between post-cutoff planform bend geometry and subsequent bend kinematics remain limited. Here, using a 37-year record of Landsat-derived river channel centrelines from a meandering reach of the Trinity River in Texas (USA) and a newly developed directed graphbased approach for high-resolution channel tracking, we identify a linkage between post-cutoff bend curvature and the magnitude, spatial extent, and temporal duration of cutoff influence on local and non-local channel bend kinematics. We further explore this relationship using a kinematic model of meandering applied to synthetically generated river reaches and the Landsat-derived Trinity River centrelines. While the model captures the observed linkages between post-cutoff bend curvature and resultant bend kinematics, it underpredicts the magnitude of cutoff influence observed in the real centreline data – particularly at the cutoff site – by up to one order of magnitude. Our results provide a promising advance in the characterization and prediction of the spatiotemporal impact of cutoffs on local and non-local post-cutoff channel bend kinematics.

Citation

Speed, C. M., Sylvester, Z., Morris, P. D., & Mohrig, D. (2024). The impact of post-cutoff bend curvature on channel kinematics in meandering rivers: an example from the Trinity River, Texas, USA. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 540. doi: 10.1144/SP540-2023-118

@article{speed2024trinity_cutoffs,
author = {C. M. Speed and Z. Sylvester and P. D. Morris and D. Mohrig},
year = {2024},
title = {The impact of post-cutoff bend curvature on channel kinematics in meandering rivers: an example from the Trinity River, Texas, USA},
journal = {Geological Society, London, Special Publications},
volume = {540},
url = {https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/full/10.1144/SP540-2023-118}}