Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Mapping Valley Bottom Confinement At The Network Scale, Gary R. O'Brien, Joseph Michael Wheaton, Kirstie Fryirs, William W. Macfarlane, Gary Brierley, Kelly Whitehead, Jordan T. Gilbert, Carol Volk

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

In this article, we demonstrate the application of a continuous confinement metric across entire river networks. Confinement is a useful metric for characterizing and discriminating valley setting. At the reach scale, valley bottom confinement is measured and quantified as the ratio of the length of channel confined on either bank by a confining margin divided by the reach length. The valley bottom is occupied by the contemporary floodplain and/or its channel(s); confining margins can be any landform or feature that makes up the valley bottom margin, such as bedrock hillslopes, terraces, fans, or anthropogenic features such as stopbanks or constructed …