ABSTRACT
Yellow River, the second longest river in China, exhibits the characteristics of wandering channel and higher sediment concentration. Sandy-riverbank collapse in desert reach is very prominent in the fluvial processes of the upper Yellow River. Based on the field observations, the processes of sandy-riverbank collapse are summarized. The volume of material produced by riverbank collapse is equal to the volume of material removed by flow erosion. Thus, calculation of the riverbank collapse volume can be reduced to calculation of the water erosion volume. So a calculation method based on residual shear force and using an experimentally determined vertical velocity distribution is introduced. The estimating method has been preliminarily presented for riverbank collapse volume calculation by using measured date from Wuhai observation site, with results compared with the observed values favorably. The method can be used for the calculation of sandy-riverbank collapse volume in the upper Yellow River.
