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Geography: Rivers Part 2

Social Studies32 CardsCreated 9 months ago

This deck covers key concepts related to river geography, including terms like capacity, competence, and various processes and features associated with rivers and flooding.

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What is capacity?

Maximum amount of things a river can carry - overall weight

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Key Terms

Term
Definition
What is capacity?
Maximum amount of things a river can carry - overall weight
What is competence?
The maximum size of a thing a river can carry
How do levees form
In a flood larger material is deposited on the banks and over many floods it builds up to be levees
What's an estuary
The tidal part of the river where the channel broadens out as it reaches the sea
What's a tidal bore?
Huge waves that move up the river than can damage vegetation and banks
What are mudflats?
Laters of mud from depositions where there's less velocity

Related Flashcard Decks

TermDefinition
What is capacity?
Maximum amount of things a river can carry - overall weight
What is competence?
The maximum size of a thing a river can carry
How do levees form
In a flood larger material is deposited on the banks and over many floods it builds up to be levees
What's an estuary
The tidal part of the river where the channel broadens out as it reaches the sea
What's a tidal bore?
Huge waves that move up the river than can damage vegetation and banks
What are mudflats?
Laters of mud from depositions where there's less velocity
What's a delta
A flat area of sand and silt built out into the sea
How do deltas occur?
When a particular river is carrying a large load and it reaches the sea the velocity slows and drops the load
What's the valley like in all the courses?
Upper course - v shape Middle course - u shape Lower course - much wider u shape [ - that shape on turned 90 degrees
What are the human causes of flooding?
Deforestation, farming, channelisation, urbanisation,
What are the physical causes of flooding?
Snow melting, rain, impermeable rock
What's interception?
When water is absorbed by vegetation
What's infiltration
When water is absorbed into the ground
What's transpiration
Where plants evaporate water from leaves
What's percolation
Some water goes deeper in the ground and is slowly transferred back to the river or sea
What's through flow
When water infiltrated the soil and moves more slowly back to the river than surface run off
What's groundwater
Water that has infiltrated the ground and is found in cracks and spaces in the soil and rocks
What's surface run off
Water that directly flows back into the river
In hydrography a what is the base flow?
The starting and finishing flow of the river either side of the increased discharge
What's lag time
Time between peak rainfall and peak discharge
What's the rising limb?
The increasing discharge as water enters channel
What's the falling limb
Fall in discharge back to base flow
What is a dam
Built to control discharge and holds back water, very expensive but can be a source of drinking water
What's afforestation
Planting trees to slow down the flow of water towards the river channel and allow more interception
What's levees or embankments
Increase the maximum area of the river channel allowing it to hold more water
What's floodplain zoning
Consider the flood plain and try to build in areas far or elevated from the river
What's channelisation
Building concrete banks and straightening the river to reduce friction and allow the water to flow quicker
What's a flood warning system
Allows evacuation of areas likely to flood and reduces damage as people can prepare
What are retention ponds
Ponds that allow runoff to me temporarily stored
What are energy levels like in upper course
A lot of gravitational potential energy so vertical erosion, not enough energy to carry big rocks in water so rolled along bed
What are middle course energy levels like
More kinetic energy do more transportation Less gravitational potential energy so lateral instead of vertical erosion
What's energy in the lower course like
No gravitational potential so mainly lateral erosion a lot of deposition due to slow velocity