A Model of Stream Channel Adjustment: Assessment of Rubey's Hypothesis

• Published in: The Journal of geology Vol. 99; no. 5; pp. 699 - 710
• Main Author: Miller, Theodore K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Chicago Press 01-09-1991
• Subjects: Grain size; Gravel; Lethal dose 50; Mathematical independent variables; Parametric models; Sediment yield; Sediments; Stream channels; Streams; Water channels
• ISSN: 0022-1376; 1537-5269
• DOI: 10.1086/629533

W. W. Rubey proposed a concept of stream channel development with channel gradient and channel form as dependent variables that mutually adjust to conditions of sediment load, sediment size, and water discharge. A similar channel development model is formulated using multiple equations and tested against a data set for 252 stream sites in the Missouri River Basin, USA. The results strongly support mutual adjustment among the gradient, form, width, and depth aspects of the stream channel system. The relation between channel form and grain size in the bed is shown to have opposite signs in the structural and reduced forms of the model. This provides the basis for an explanation of a puzzling aspect of Rubey's conception of the adjustment process. The results suggest that channel form is more dependent on the process of mutual adjustment of morphologic elements than is channel gradient.