Arrested geomorphic trajectories and the long-term hidden potential for change

Abstract

Geomorphic systems often experience morphological changes that define a trajectory over decadal time periods. These trends can be halted by natural inhibitors such as vegetation, knickpoints, bed armor, or bank cohesion, or by anthropogenic inhibitors such as revetment, levees, or dams. Details about where and how channels and floodplains are stabilized are often poorly understood, which poses a risk that modern projects could unwittingly remove critical stabilizing elements (inhibitors) and unleash an episode of rapid change. The potential for destabilization is particularly keen for rivers that were severely altered by human activities but were stabilized by an inhibitor before readjustment was complete. This study uses aerial photographs to examine two cases of arrested geomorphic trajectories in the lower Yuba and Feather Rivers of northern California after 150 years of severe human disturbance. Channel adjustments were inhibited in distinctly different ways. First, channelization of the Feather River across a high-amplitude meander bend ∼4 km below the Yuba-Feather River confluence resulted in a knickpoint at Shanghai Shoals that retreated upstream at an average rate of 3.67 m/yr from 1963 to 2013 with two episodes of rapid retreat. Shanghai Shoals was breached in 2013. Second, numerous wing dams on the Yuba River constructed in the early nineteenth century limit floodplain widening and prevent return to an anastomosing channel planform. Their stabilizing role is important to preventing mobilization of mining sediment with high concentrations of mercury. These rivers exemplify how arrested geomorphic trajectories may impact sustainable river management, and how recognition of fluvial evolution is essential to sustainable river management.

Keywords: Evolutionary trajectory; Inhibitors; Potential geomorphic change; River management.