Geog 621:  Current Trends in Geography Winter 2001 -- University of Oregon Prof. Pat McDowell

Syllabus | Books & Journals | Term Paper Assignment | P. McDowell home page | Dept. of Geography

Week 8 Schedule and Assignments

Monday, Feb. 26:  Recent developments in Fluvial Geomorphology (McDowell)

Reading assignment:  

We will read two articles.  The first (Macklin and Lewin) covers long-term (natural) changes in river systems, and the second (Montgomery and Buffington) focuses on explaining variation in river morphology and predicting short-term changes (mainly human disturbance) in river systems.  

Macklin, M.G., and Lewin, J., 1997.  Channel, floodplain and drainage basin response to environmental change.  In Thorne, C.R. et al., eds., Applied Fluvial Geomorphology for River Engineering and Management, p. 15-45.  

This article provides a good overview of the effects of long-term, extrinsic influences on river systems (climate change, tectonics, etc.), as well as human impacts on river systems.  Some questions to think about as you do this reading:
What time scales are important in river system behavior?  What are the time scales of human impacts?
What is landscape inheritance?  
How do geomorphologists determine whether river change is due to human disturbance or change in extrinsic controls?  Can they always tell this?  If not, why not?
What are the two internal components or processes of the river system through which instability occurs? 
What are some of the approaches and data sources for reconstructing river response to disturbance/perturbation? 
What are some specific river responses to a specific human disturbance (agriculture, logging, mining, urbanization, etc.) that have been documented?  

Montgomery, D.R., and Buffington, J., 1998.  Channel processes, classification, and response.  In Naiman, R.J., et al., eds., River Ecology and Management: Lessons from the Pacific Northwest Coastal Ecoregion, p. 13-42.    New York: Springer.  

This long article presents physical and conceptual models of channel response, examples of channel change in response to environmental changes, and a channel classification system.  Here are some questions to think about.
How do channels respond to disturbance?  How similar is response across different river systems?  Why do different rivers respond differently?  What solution or tool do the authors propose to understand or predict differences in response?
How does Montgomery and Buffington's system of channel classification (MB system) differ from earlier channel classifications?  
How do you classify a channel using the MB system?  What kinds of data are needed and what methods would be employed?  
In what ways, if any, does the MB system use geographical concepts?
According to the MB system, what variables control channel morphology (i.e., are used to classify channel types), and what variables are considered external influences?  Why?
Is the MB system intended to classify or to predict?  
Does the MB system seem complete, or are there other factors that you think might be considered?  

Copies of both articles are in Condon 108.  

Wednesday, Feb. 28:  No class -- AAG meeting

last update:  02/12/07 10:45 PM
Department of Geography, University of Oregon, Eugene OR, 97403-1251