Originally published in 1982, this book presents a detailed review of alluvial river form and process and integrates the distinct but related approaches of geomorphologists, geologists and engineers to the subject. It outlines the environmental catchment factors that control the development of channel equilibrium and provides a detailed account of the sediment transport processes that represent the physical mechanisms by which channel adjustment occurs. Where possible it evaluates theoretical analyses in the context of the empirical evidence. Rivers should prove a valuable textbook for geomorphology students on advanced undergraduate courses on river behaviour and will also be of interest to students of hydraulics and sedimentology and to those concerned with civil and environmental engineering, river management and channel design, maintenance and management in the water industry
1. Alluvial River Channels: Their Nature and Significance 2. The Drainage Basin: Environmental Controls of the River Channel 3. The Mechanics of Flow and in the Initiation of Sediment Transport 4. Sediment Transport Processes 5. The Magnitude and Frequency of Channel-Forming Events 6. The Morphology of River Cross-Sections 7. River Channel Pattern: Processes, Forms and Sedimentology 8. Channel Gradient and the Long Profile 9. River Channel Changes: Adjustments of Equilibrium 10. Channel Management and Design
Biography
Keith Richards is Professor of Geography at the University of Cambridge, where he is also a Fellow of Emmanuel College. He has been a member of the Department since 1984, and before that was at the University of Hull. He originally graduated from Cambridge, both at Bachelor and PhD levels. During his career he has published in several areas of geomorphology, but his main research focus has been in fluvial geomorphology. He has been Secretary and Chairman of the British Geomorphological Research Group, and an editor of Earth Surface Processes and Landforms. He has written or edited nine books and about 150 papers
Original reviews of Rivers:
‘This lucid and scholarly review of over 850 research publications will undoubtedly serve as an excellent advanced text for geomorphology courses and as a standard reference work for students in allied subjects.’ The Times Higher Education Supplement
‘In this book Keith Richards has assembled a wealth of information on the geomorphology of rivers…he is to be congratulated on producing a thoroughly researched, up-to-date account of fluvial processes and landforms. This book will be a standard text for many years to come.’ Geography.
‘Rivers is undoubtedly one of the major contributions to the subject of fluvial geomorphology in the last decade. Keith Richards provides a detailed review of the ‘state of the art’ in a field which has grown so much in recent years, that, on this basis alone, the book is major achievement. It is an essential reference text for serious students and practitioners in geomorphology, sedimentology and river engineering.’ Sedimentology.
