Author(s): Yunshuo Cheng; Zhiwei Li

Linked Author(s): Yunshuo Cheng

Keywords: Meandering River Planform-shape Kinoshita function Upper Yellow River Landsat images

Abstract: The skewing and flattening tendencies of two pristine meandering rivers in the Upper Yellow River are investigated through the use of Kinoshita function. Landsat images from Google Earth Engine platform are utilized that identify 468 individual meander loops from the 512 km meandering river course. Among them, the initial deflection angle and dimensionless wavelength (wavelength/width) for individual loops are ranged from 28.6 ~ 126.1 and 4.3 ~ 43.5, respectively. It is found that: (1) the functional relationship between loop sinuosity and initial deflection angle of the investigated meander loops can be very well described by the Bessel function as derived from large Russian rivers by Yalin (1992); (2) the skewing tendency of the meander loop is correlated with the loop’s initial deflection angle, the higher angle, the stronger upstream skewing tendency; (3) the flattening tendency is related to the dimensionless wavelength, the larger dimensionless wavelength, the flatter of the loop. Future work will unveil the skewing and flattening tendencies of meandering loops at a global scale.

DOI:

Year: 2025