509 / 2024-06-07 12:22:36

A comprehensive conceptual diagram for the hydro-morphological interactions with vegetation exerted over by external forcing actions

riparian vegetation,hydro-morphodynamics,,interaction,external forcing actions,,conceptual diagram

Subtheme 3: Eco-hydraulics and Environment > Topic 1: Innovation and Development of Eco-hydraulics Theory

Fluvial vegetation is an important and intriguing engineering, geophysics, and biology research area. Since Mackin’s pioneering study of the effect of vegetation on channel geometry in the USA in 1956, many studies have been conducted, mainly among geomorphologists, about the effect of the flow regime in alluvial rivers on riparian vegetation and geomorphology. This study proposes a new conceptual diagram depicting the hydro-morphological interactions with vegetation, which has been improved from the previous study (Woo, 2023). It has the vegetation factor in the center, and three abiotic factors surround the vegetation: the flow of water and sediment, fluvial landforms, and bio-geochemical groundwater and soils. In addition, four external actions are considered in the diagram: climate, human activities, ecological actions, and external inflow of nutrients. They eventually change the dynamics of the interactions between relevant factors they exert. This diagram extracts five categories of interactions between the vegetation and each surrounding factor. According to the effect and response pattern, each category has sub-categories of two to three. Hence, five categories and 13 sub-categories are deduced from the conceptual diagram. The proposed conceptual diagram can represent all the feasible interactions between the fluvial system and vegetation, either unilateral or reciprocal, which have been reviewed, not comprehensively but in part, in many articles with different conceptual diagrams. The proposed diagram is comprehensive and inclusive. It can also be used for educational purposes.