A simulation model for meandering rivers and their associated sedimentary environments

Abstract

The interplay between a meandering river and the changing sedimentary environment created by the river itself, at earlier times during its development, was studied using a computer simulation model. Our treatment of the river migration is based directly on the bend-erosion theory of Ikeda et al. In the present work, this well-known theory is augmented by a sedimentation model intended to describe geological heterogeneities and the evolution of these heterogeneities under the influence of the river itself. The different forms of individual meanders observed in various natural sedimentary environments have been reproduced by the model. The long-term effects of meandering river evolution, including the formation of a meander belt that restricts the lateral migration of the river, have also been explored using the model.