ALBERT

Description: Meander migration and planform evolution depend on the resistance to erosion of the floodplain materials. To date, research to quantify meandering river adjustment has largely focused on resistance to erosion properties that vary horizontally. This paper evaluates the combined effect of horizontal and vertical floodplain material heterogeneity on meander migration by simulating fluvial erosion and cantilever and planar bank mass failure processes responsible for bank retreat. The impact of streambank failures on meander migration is conceptualized in our RVR Meander model through a bank armoring factor associated with the dynamics of slump blocks produced by cantilever and planar failures. Simulation periods smaller than the time to cutoff areconsidered, such that all planform complexity is caused by bank erosion processes and floodplain heterogeneity and not by cutoff dynamics. Cantilever failure continuously affects meander migration, because it is primarily controlled by the fluvial erosion at the bank toe. Hence, it impacts migration rates and meander shapes through the horizontal and vertical distribution of erodibility of floodplain materials. Planar failures are more episodic. However, in floodplain areas characterized by less cohesive materials, they can affect meander evolution in a sustained way and produce preferential migration patterns. Model results show that besides the hydrodynamics, bed morphology and horizontal floodplain heterogeneity, floodplain stratigraphy can significantly affect meander evolution, both in terms of migration rates and planform shapes. Specifically, downstream meander migration can either increase or decrease with respect to the case of a homogeneous floodplain; lateral migration generally decreases as result of bank protection due to slump blocks; and the effect on bend skewness depends on the location and volumes of failed bank material caused by cantilever and planar failures along the bends, with possible achievement of downstream bend skewness under certain conditions. Therefore, floodplain stratigraphy must be accounted for when estimating meander migration within floodplains. Results also suggest that the generation of slump blocks due to mass failure mechanisms and their effect on rates of bank erosion must be included explicitly in models of meander migration: tweaking the bank erodibility parameters for fluvial erosion to indirectly account for those processes cannot sufficiently reproduce their effects on meander migration patterns, because slump block generation depends on river planform configuration, direction of migration, and location of the river bends with respect to the floodplain material patches.