River‐Meander Model. II: Applications

Abstract

An analytical model for the description of flow and bed topography in, and planform development of meanders is tested with data from rivers in India, Pakistan, and the United States. The model is steady, two‐dimensional and linear, and it describes the channel flow as a damped, oscillating system with curvature as forcing function. The description of planform development is obtained by forcing a small, traveling perturbation on the system and determining the migration features of the perturbation. The model describes planform development in terms of lateral and downstream migration rates, and flow and bed topography in terms of transverse gradients of depth and depth‐averaged velocity. Formulas for estimates of dominant meander wavelength and phase shift are also tested. The agreement with data is good. Guidelines for use of the model are described, using data from a hypothetical river.