ABSTRACT
Weathering, surface erosion, and mass movement activities within drainage basins generate sufficient sediments of diverse origin and size composition for transport and deposition by streams as alluvium. This alluvium is deposited as flood plains on land, alluvial fans commonly on land, and river deltas partly on land and partly in adjacent water bodies of sizable extent. Flood plains are the hydrologic response of sediment transport processes within and beyond channel margins. Alluvial fans are a feature of local deposition on surfaces over which streams suddenly lose competence for the transport of sediment load from upland basin sources. River deltas develop in the transitional environment as subaerial and subaqueous deposits of alluvium at or near the mouth of streams draining into the sea or large freshwater lakes.
