Book Description

Meandering patterns shaped by fluid flows are found over a broad range of landscapes, from bedrock channels to rivers and estuaries, deep-marine environments, supraglacial streams and other planets such as Mars and Venus. During the last six decades, meanders have been widely investigated by researchers from different fields, such as fluid mechanics, geomorphology, ecology, civil- and petroleum engineering, and geology. This volume seeks to push the science of meandering forward by bringing together insights gained from field, laboratory and numerical investigations of meandering streams found in distinct environmental and geological contexts. The authors pay particular attention to the interactions between autogenic and allogenic processes that affect meander kinematics and the resulting morphology, sedimentology and stratigraphic architecture. The findings presented in this volume contribute to a better understanding of stream meandering in diverse settings, with broad implications for stream and wetland restoration, land management, infrastructure design, oil exploration and production, carbon sequestration, hazard mitigation and planetary palaeoenvironmental reconstructions.