Comparisons of Arctic River Geomorphology and Analysis of River Width Using the SWOT River Database

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2023-05

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The Ohio State University

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Abstract

The SWOT River Database (SWORD) provides new opportunities in analyzing rivers on a global scale. The research in this thesis presents a comparison of river width, slope, sinuosity, and meander length between the arctic regions of Asia, North America, and Europe to the non-arctic regions split along the 66.56 North latitude line. The results show an arctic with a river width median that is 20m and a slope median 20cm greater than the non-arctic subset. Arctic river sinuosity and meander length are similar in each percentile with the largest difference in the 3rd quartile of meander length being about 35m greater than the arctic subset. The greater widths observed in the arctic can be associated to an environment that promotes braiding as a channel formation. Braided rivers tend to have wider channels and greater slope values. Braiding is common in arid environments due to lack of vegetation coverage and increased slope values, leading to support the results of larger river widths observed in the arctic subset.

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Remote Sensing, SWORD, SWOT, Fluvial Geomorphology, Arctic, Rivers

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