River Meandering Calculator

Migration rate from channel width and discharge.

Channel width (m)

Discharge (m³/s)

Bank resistance (1-10)

Valley slope (m/m)

Time period (years)

Tab to move between fields

Migration rate (m/yr)

0.06

Total migration (m)3.11

Meander wavelength (m)550

Meander amplitude (m)135

Sinuosity1.39

Cutoff risk (0-100)1.2

How to Use This Calculator

Enter Channel width (m) from a bankfull survey or aerial measurement.
Enter bankfull Discharge (m³/s) from a stream gauge or regional flood-frequency estimate.
Set Bank resistance (1–10): 1 for loose sand, 3 for silt-clay, 5 for cohesive clay, 10 for near-bedrock conditions.
Enter Valley slope (m/m) from a DEM or topographic map (e.g., 0.001 = 1 m drop per km).
Read Migration rate (m/yr) and Sinuosity to assess channel mobility, and check Cutoff risk (0–100) for oxbow formation likelihood.

How the result changes with Bank resistance (1-10)

Channel width (m): Bankfull width of the river channel in meters.
Discharge (m³/s): Bankfull or mean annual discharge in cubic meters per second.
Bank resistance (1-10): Bank erodibility: 1=loose sand, 3=silt-clay, 5=cohesive clay, 10=bedrock.
Valley slope (m/m): Valley gradient in meters per meter (e.g. 0.001 = 1 m drop per km).
Time period (years): Number of years over which to compute total lateral migration.

Migration rate (m/yr): Estimated lateral bank migration rate in meters per year.
Total migration (m): Cumulative lateral migration over the observation period.
Meander wavelength (m): Predicted meander wavelength (~11× channel width).
Meander amplitude (m): Predicted meander belt width (~2.7× channel width).
Sinuosity: Channel length / valley length ratio. 1.0=straight, >1.5=highly sinuous.
Cutoff risk (0-100): Relative likelihood of meander neck cutoff during the observation period.

Identify Input Parameters
4 parameters
Channel width (m) = 50, Discharge (m³/s) = 100, Bank resistance (1-10) = 3, Valley slope (m/m) = 0.001 = 5 input(s) provided
Calculate Migration rate
Migration rate = 0.5 * pow(specificStreamPower / 100, 0.5) *
0.062 = 0.062
Calculate Total migration
Total migration = migrationRate * observationYears
3.11 = 3.11
Calculate Meander wavelength
Meander wavelength = 11 * channelWidth
550 = 550