ABSTRACT
This chapter explicates the significance of flowing water as a geomorphic agent. It explains the various surface and subsurface fluvial processes and their role as soil and sediment eroders, transporters, and depositors. It considers fluvial erosional landforms, including rills and gullies, bedrock channels, alluvial channels, river long-profiles, river networks, and river valleys. Next, the chapter focuses on fluvial depositional landforms, from channel-bed riffles and dunes to floodplains, alluvial fans, river terraces, and lake deltas. It then investigates the human impact on rivers, including the effects of agriculture, mining, and urban activities on sediment flux, and the need for river management. Looking at long-term analyses, the chapter examines river response to changing climates and land use during the Quaternary, showing that the response of the fluvial system to environmental change is usually complex, and that in some places, it is difficult to disentangle climatic effects from anthropogenic effects.
