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A Novel Approach to Calculate Braiding of a Large Alluvial River


Affiliations
1 Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781 039, India
2 Department of Environmental Science, Tezpur University, Tezpur 784 028, India
 

Braiding pattern in sixteen reaches of the Brahmaputra river in Assam, India is discussed. A new braiding index has been introduced incorporating a fraction of area covered by sandbars, number of midchannel bars and maximum width of alluvial reach. Braiding parameters calculated using different formulae showed similar trend but higher values in 2014 compared to 1973. Increase of braiding in different reaches in 2014 was due to development of more sandbars and distributaries. The new index has shown comparable result with other approaches and better correlation with sinuosity.

Keywords

Alluvial River, Braiding, Sandbars, Brahmaputra.
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  • A Novel Approach to Calculate Braiding of a Large Alluvial River

Abstract Views: 375  |  PDF Views: 124

Authors

Lalit Saikia
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781 039, India
Chandan Mahanta
Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati 781 039, India
Suranjana Bhaswati Borah
Department of Environmental Science, Tezpur University, Tezpur 784 028, India

Abstract


Braiding pattern in sixteen reaches of the Brahmaputra river in Assam, India is discussed. A new braiding index has been introduced incorporating a fraction of area covered by sandbars, number of midchannel bars and maximum width of alluvial reach. Braiding parameters calculated using different formulae showed similar trend but higher values in 2014 compared to 1973. Increase of braiding in different reaches in 2014 was due to development of more sandbars and distributaries. The new index has shown comparable result with other approaches and better correlation with sinuosity.

Keywords


Alluvial River, Braiding, Sandbars, Brahmaputra.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv115%2Fi6%2F1179-1185