ABSTRACT
British rivers vary considerably in character. There is no whitewater canoeing or salmon fishing in East Anglia, and no punting or rowing in the Scottish Highlands. Much of this diversity of character stems from differences in streamflow and its erosional and depositional effects, as already discussed in Chapters 1 and 2, but the most immediately obvious characteristics of any river are the size, three-dimensional shape, and valley setting of its channel. No British river is as wide as the Rhine let alone the Mississippi; none shifts its course as actively as the monsoon-swollen Brahmaputra of Bangladesh or the icemelt-fed outwash rivers of New Zealand’s South Island; none is as spectacularly hemmed in by rock walls as many rivers in the European Alps and other young mountain ranges. But although small, stable, and unspectacular by world standards the channels of British rivers display considerable diversity in size, shape, setting, and activity and this diversity is of importance in understanding the natural environment and managing it for man’s use.
