 Degradation of River Bed

Degradation is the lowering of a riverbed over a period of time which

can happen both at the downstream and also at the upstream
About its causes and impacts given below:-
Causes of degradation

 Land-use changes
 Dikes and revetment construction for navigation
 River cutoffs
 Major floods
 Dam construction on the river or its tributaries
 Flow modification by reservoir regulation
 Commercial sand/aggregate dredging

Impacts of degradation

 Jeopardizes bridges and transportation systems

 Necessitates modification of power plant intakes
 Necessitates modification of water supply intakes
 Contributes to loss of shallow-water habitat
 Contributes to loss of wetlands
 Exposes pipeline crossings
 Causes instability of drainage outfall structures
 Undermines dikes, revetments and levees
 Puts tributary bridge crossings at risk
 Exposes navigation obstructions
 Causes stream bank erosion on tributaries
 Causes river bank instability and failures3

 Aggradation of River Bed

Aggradation (or alluviation) is the term used in geology for the
increase in land elevation, typically in a river system, due to
the deposition of sediment. Aggradation occurs in areas in which the
supply of sediment is greater than the amount of material that the
system is able to transport.
Rivers affect the landscape through a combination of erosion and
deposition. As rivers run out of kinetic energy, they will begin to
deposit sediment because they do not have enough energy to keep these
sediments entrained. When sediments are deposited in a river, they
raise the base level of the river. The base level is defined as the point
below which the water in a river cannot cut into the riverbed and deepen
it. During aggradation, sediment accumulates, gradually raising the
riverbed. Aggradation probably most often occurs in rivers that are
relatively sediment-choked so that they are near the limit of how much
sediment they can entrain before depositing material due to a gradual
loss in kinetic energy.
Aggradation can be caused by changes in climate, land use, and
geologic activity, such as volcanic eruption, earthquakes, and faulting.
For example, volcanic eruptions may lead to rivers carrying more
sediment than the flow can transport: this leads to the burial of the old
channel and its floodplain. In another example, the quantity of
sediment entering a river channel may increase when climate becomes
drier. The increase in sediment is caused by a decrease in soil binding
that results from plant growth being suppressed. The drier conditions
cause river flow to decrease at the same time as sediment is being
supplied in greater quantities, resulting in the river becoming choked
with sediment.