Review and outlook of river morphology expression. Issue 4 (18th March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Ziwei; Yan, Chaode; Boota, Muhammad Waseem
• Is Part Of: Journal of water and climate change. Volume 13:Issue 4(2022)
• Page Start: 1725
• Page End: 1747
• Publication Date: 2022-03-18
• Subjects: challenges -- expression -- outlook -- river morphology; Water -- Periodicals; Hydrology -- Periodicals; Climatic changes -- Periodicals; Climatic changes; Hydrology; Water; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 333.9116
• DOI: 10.2166/wcc.2022.449
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2040-2244

Abstract

Abstract: The morphological expression of rivers provides a primary medium for human understanding of river geomorphology and the transmission of geographical information. In an ever-changing environment, constantly updated river monitoring data and products offer considerable potential for an explicit expression of river morphological characteristics and associated processes. This paper reviewed the advances in river morphology expression and examines how the various approaches can be utilized to interpret changing geomorphic features of rivers. First, taking alluvial rivers as the research object, river morphology is classified into three types of expression data and four categories of expression models. Then, the limitations of current river morphology models, such as uncertainty, inconsistency, and poor joint application, are analyzed. Finally, four outlooks are offered for improving river morphology expression, including stimulating the expression of river morphology with big data of rivers, redefining different river types, promoting multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary integration, and serving scientific management and decision-making. HIGHLIGHTS: Constantly updated data and models offer great potential for expressing river morphology. The expression of river morphology faces the challenges of uncertainty, inconsistency, and insufficient joint application. Four outlooks are expected to enhance the future expression of river morphology. A systematic research framework for the morphological expression of rivers is recommended. Graphical Abstract