Course Description
Landforming effects of surface-water movement at both the watershed and channel scales. Emphasis is on surface-water hydrology, streamflow mechanics, floods, sediment transport and storage, landforms, and landform evolution. Field trips included.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Additional readings, assignments, and questions on tests.
Athena Title
Fluvial Geomorphology
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course meets the following General Education Abilities by accomplishing the specific learning objectives listed below: A basic understanding of physical, biological, and extraterrestrial processes that influence the spatial expression of fluvial systems at local and regional scales; An appreciation of the diversity of fluvial landforms and linkages with other environmental systems; An ability to recognize the reciprocal interactions between human action, modification of the fluvial systems, and past/future global environmental change. This course meets the following General Education Abilities, by accomplishing the specific learning objectives listed below: Communicate effectively through writing. This is met by a series of writing assignments associated with supplemental reading and data analysis. Computer Literacy is addressed through course administration, student-faculty electronic interaction, and data analysis activities and assignments. Critical Thinking is central to the learning objectives of this class, and are developed through homework assignments, lecture, classroom discussion, and inquiry- based learning efforts. Moral Reasoning (Ethics) is an important element of this course, as it explores linkages among the physical environment, hazards, human health and welfare, and appropriate technologies. Moral reasoning is developed through lectures, writing assignments, classroom discussion, and inquiry-based learning activities.
Topical Outline
Drainage Basin Characteristics, Influences, and Evolution, pp. 1-95 1. Introduction 2. Climate influence on fluvial systems 3. Drainage networks 4. Catchment hydrology 5. Geology and landcover influence on surface water hydrology 6. Catchment denudation and sediment yield Fluvial Processes: Water and Sediment Transport and Deposition 7. Mechanics of flow 8. Erosion and sediment transport 9. Sediment deposition 10. Alluvial landforms 11. Alluvial stratigraphy and soils Channel Form and Adjustments 12. Adjustment of channel form 13. Cross sectional form 14. Bed configuration/Bedforms 15. Channel patterns and planimetric view 16. Channel gradient and longitudinal profile Change in Channel Form 17. Changes in channel morphology 18. Effect of floods on channel morphology 19. Human impacts on fluvial geomorphology
Syllabus