Water and Rivers

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering hydrological cycle components, stream mechanics, channel patterns, dam impacts, and watershed dynamics.

Hydrologic Cycle

The continuous circulation and movement of water above and below the surface of the Earth.

Water Pools

Places where water is stored on Earth, such as the oceans, glacial ice, groundwater, lakes, wetlands, soil moisture, and the atmosphere.

Water Fluxes

The pathways and processes by which water moves between storage pools, such as evaporation, precipitation, discharge, recharge, transpiration, and human water use.

Stream

A body of flowing water confined within a natural channel, encompassing rivers, creeks, and brooks.

Discharge

The volume of water flowing past a given cross section over a set length of time, mathematically expressed as cross-sectional area multiplied by average flow velocity ($Q = A \times V$).

Watershed (Drainage Basin)

The geographic region of land from which all surface runoff and tributaries drain into a specific stream or river.

Drainage Divide

An elevated ridge of land or topographical boundary that separates adjacent drainage basins from one another.

Bed Load

The large, heavy particles of stream sediment, such as sand and gravel, that move along the bottom of a channel by rolling, sliding, or saltating (hopping).

Suspended Load

Fine sediment particles, including silt and clay, held aloft in the water column and transported by stream turbulence.

Dissolved Load

Soluble mineral ions and chemical compounds carried invisibly in solution by flowing stream water.

Base Level

The lowest elevation to which a running stream can erode its bed, commonly located at the mouth where flow ceases and the remaining transported sediment is deposited.

Point Bar

A low-gradient, depositional accumulation of sediment formed along the inner bend of a meandering river channel where water velocity is slowest.

Cut Bank

A steep, eroded riverbank located along the outer bend of a meander where the highest water velocities and active lateral erosion occur.

Sinuosity

The ratio measuring the channel length of a stream relative to the straight down-valley distance, categorized into straight ($1$ to $1.05$), low sinuosity ($1.06$ to $1.3$), and sinuous ($1.3$ to $3$).

Braided Channel

A river channel pattern featuring multiple dividing and reuniting subchannels ($>3$ channels) separated by sediment bars.

Oxbow Lake

A curved, crescent-shaped body of water formed when an advancing meander loop is cut off from the primary channel during high flow.

Floodplain

The low-relief, flat area flanking a river channel that is regularly inundated by overflow and receives fine alluvial sediment during floods.

Bank Stabilization

Engineering techniques applied to channel banks, such as geotextile wrapping, vegetation, and rock riprap, designed to stop lateral bank migration and reduce bank erosion.

Channelization

Human modification of river channels through artificial straightening, widening, deepening, or concrete lining to increase water flow velocity and manage local flood hazard.

Spillway

An engineered overflow structure within a dam designed to safely conduct high-volume floodwaters downstream past the barrier to prevent dam overtopping.

Hyporheic Zone

The subsurface region beneath and lateral to a riverbed where shallow groundwater and surface river water actively mix, supporting aquatic life and fish spawning grounds.

Klamath River Renewal Project

A major river restoration initiative dedicated to the removal of four hydroelectric dams (J.C. Boyle Dam, Copco Dams 1 & 2, and Iron Gate Dam) along the Klamath River to reopen fish passage and restore river processes.

Urban Karst

A network of underground pipes, utility conduits, and permeable backfill trenches in developed areas that creates artificial preferential pathways for water flow and alters natural infiltration and baseflow.