The influence of riparian woody vegetation on bankfull alluvial river morphodynamics

Exploring the effects of bank vegetation on fluvial morphodynamics has long been an essential part of fluvial morphodynamic-related research. In a practical sense, a central question is: does increased vegetation density increase or decrease the channel width? Several aspects concerning the role of vegetation may result in examples of both width decrease and increase. In this study, we examined more than 170 alluvial river sections. Our goal was to detect the phenomena that ultimately determine riparian woody vegetation-induced width variation. We found that bed material is a governing factor. In the case of fine-grained material, i.e. median size D 50