With the Midwest under water, America had a chance to see how
effectively it had "improved" its rivers. We've straightened and
dredged them, revetted and rerouted them, made massive efforts to
control them, yet our actions have been less than successful. Too
often, physical changes made to a river conflict with natural
processes, resulting in--rather than alleviating--damage. Applying
available knowledge on how rivers form and act could prevent such
problems. In this book, Luna Leopold seeks to organize such
knowledge. Widely regarded as the most creative scholar in the
field of river morphology, Leopold presents a coherent description
of the river, its shape, size, organization, and action, along with
a consistent theory that explains much of the observed character of
channels.
The laws of physics that govern rivers allow for variations,
many of them dictated by random chance. Thus, a river's adaptation,
as Leopold describes it, tends toward the most probable form, the
one with the least variance among hydraulic parameters. We see how
this probabilistic tendency plays out as Leopold views the river as
a whole from headwater to mouth, in the drainage net, in the
behavior of meanders, and in aspects of sediment transport.
Grounded in hydraulics, geomorphology, and surveying, as well
as in extensive fieldwork on rivers in the eastern and Rocky
Mountain states, Leopold's view of a river is at once technical and
personal, providing both a firm foundation for understanding the
behavior of rivers--including instructions for getting started in
backyard hydrology--and a wealth of firsthand observations by a
thoughtful and experienced scientist. It will be of immediate
interest andgreat use as we seek to develop, preserve, and
appreciate our most fluid natural resource.
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