HCC paper 1 Rivers glossary

Rocks carried along by the river wear down the river bed and banks.

• Attrition

• Estuary

• Abrasion/Corrasion

• Solution

Rocks being carried by the river smash together and break into smaller, smoother and rounder particles.

• Levees

• Hydraulic Action

• Attrition

• Suspension

The side to side slice/cross-section of a river

channel and/or valley.

• Flood plain

• Lateral erosion

• Traction

• Cross profile

A barrier (made on earth, concrete or stone) built across a valley to interrupt river flow and create a man‐made lake which stores water and controls the discharge of the river.

• Interlocking spurs

• Dam and reservoir

• Flood relief channels

• Vertical erosion

The quantity of water that passes a given point on a stream or river‐bank within a given period of time.

• Discharge

• Flood

• Flood risk

• Long profile

Raised banks constructed along the river; they effectively make the river deeper so it can hold more water

• Gorge

• Soft engineering

• Embankments

• Ox-bow lake

The tidal mouth of a river where it meets the sea; wide banks of deposited mud are exposed at low tide

• Cross profile

• Hard engineering

• Estuary

• Meander

Occurs when river discharge exceeds river channel capacity and water spills out of the channel onto the floodplain and other areas

• Fluvial processes

• Levees

• Hydrograph

• Flood

The relatively flat area forming the valley floor on either side of a river channel, which is sometimes flooded.

• Gorge

• Flood plain

• Long profile

• Flood risk

This attempts to organise the flood defences in such a way that land that is near the river and often floods is not built on. This could be used for pastoral farming, playing fields etc.

• Embankments

• Flood relief channels

• Hard engineering

• Flood plain zoning