The role of floodplain width and alluvial bar growth as a precursor for the formation of anabranching rivers

Abstract Anabranching rivers are defined as a system of multiple channels separated by stable alluvial islands. While substantial progress has been made in developing a physics-based understanding of what drives the differences between meandering and braided river channels, anabranching rivers have not been well-integrated into these models. Here, we propose that alluvial bar growth on the floodplain may be a precursor for the formation of anabranching rivers. Alluvial bar growth strongly depends on the aspect ratio of the flow (width divided by depth) and rivers with wide floodplains have flows with a large aspect ratio. Consistent with this idea, remotely sensed measurements of floodplain width of four rivers from different climatic and tectonic settings show that anabranching river patterns are often associated with relatively wide floodplains. To explore the physics behind that empirical relationship we carried out two sets of morphodynamic numerical simulations using boundary conditions from field-scale modern anabranching rivers spanning different climatic and geologic settings as well as hypothetical floodplain widths. Results from the simulations show that, for a given flood discharge, widening the floodplain changes the river pattern from single channel to multi-threaded with mobile bars to multi-channeled with immobile islands. Multi-channeled patterns arise because the emergence of bars causes flow bifurcation. Subsequent bifurcation instability leads to the emergence of multiple stable channels. As the channels increase their cross-sectional area, shields stresses on intervening bars are reduced until the bars stabilize into islands. We suggest that the presence of stable islands allows vegetation to grow or cohesive sediment to accumulate leading to enhanced channel bank strength and a stable anabranching pattern. Our results suggest that alluvial bar growth can be a precursor to formation of anabranching rivers. Compared with field measurements our simulations accurately predict the number of active channels to within ~ 20% which seems to support the idea that some anabranching rivers may originate from alluvial bar growth.