This study will examine the origin, evolution morphological and sedimentological characteristics of natural levees in alluvial floodplains, concentrating on the upper Columbia River near Golden, British Columbia, and the Saskatchewan River at the Cumberland Marshes, eastern Saskatchewan. Despite common depictions of levees as being relatively simple features, they are quite complex, displaying a wide range of sizes, shapes, slopes, and textural attributes that likely reflect controls of channel and floodplain configurations, channel history, sediment load, flood character and flood history. This three-part investigation will include (1) measurement and analysis of morphometric parameters of levees, (2) hydraulic field measurements and mathematical modeling of modern levee formation, and (3) sedimentological investigations of levee deposits, focusing on the question of what can be inferred about channel history and evolutionary patterns of levees from their deposits. The results of this project are expected to (i) permit testing of a proposed conceptual model for the development and growth of natural levees concurrently with the evolution of channels following avulsion in river floodplains, (ii) provide a clearer sense of the relative importance of diffusive and adjective mechanisms of channel-to-floodplain sediment transfer during different stages of levee development, and (iii) result in a better understanding of levee deposits and their relative importance in successions of alluvial sediments.
