Two Indices to Measure the Intensity of Meander

Waveform or meandering is obvious for all stream channels. Ideal waveforms, such as a sine or cosine wave, are one line thick, but for a stream, the width must be taken into consideration. The meandering stream follows the down-valley axis, a line fitted to the curve such that the sum of all the amplitudes measured from it is zero. However to determine the intensity of the meander of a stream, several measures such as Wavelength, Amplitude, Curvature, Radius Of Curvature, Sinuosity, Radius: Width Ratio, Wavelength/Width Ratio etc. have been used. The present paper is trying to introduce two other measures—Meander Form Index (FmI) and Meander Shape Index (SmI) to the field not only to give a quantitative value to the meander but also to add quality to it.