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Channel Instability In A Braided Sand Bed River, William L. Graf

Faculty Publications

The Gila River of central Arizona is representative of braided, sand bed rivers in alluvial valleys that have inherent unstable behavior and destructive channel migration. The 112-year record of channel conditions along a portion of the Gila River provides data for the construction of locational probability maps for main flow channels. Zones of stability and hazardous instability alternate with each other at 3.2 km (2 mi) intervals. During the past century the overall sinuosity of the main flow channel has remained close to 1.18, despite numerous changes in actual location. Spatial and temporal variation of sinuosity have occurred in subreaches …