Articles | Volume 13, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-97-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-97-2025
Research article
 | 
30 Jan 2025
Research article |  | 30 Jan 2025

Width evolution of channel belts as a random walk

Jens M. Turowski, Fergus McNab, Aaron Bufe, and Stefanie Tofelde

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Cited articles

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Short summary
Channel belts comprise the area affected by a river due to lateral migration and floods. As a landform, they affect water resources and flood hazard, and they often host unique ecological communities. We develop a model describing the evolution of channel-belt area over time. The model connects the behaviour of the river to the evolution of the channel belt over a timescale of centuries. A comparison to selected data from experiments and real river systems verifies the random walk approach.
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