Straight channels, mainly unstable, develop along the lines of faults and master joints, on steep slopes where rills closely follow the surface gradient, and in some delta outlets. Flume experiments show that straight channels of uniform cross section rapidly develop pool-and-riffle sequences. Pools are spaced at about five bed widths. Lateral shift of alternate pools toward alternate sides produces sinuous channels, and spacing of pools on each side of the channel is thus five to seven bed widths. This relation holds in natural meandering streams.

Meandering channels

Meandering channels are single channels that are sinuous in plan, but there is no criterion, except an arbitrary one, of the degree of sinuousity required before a channel is called meandering. The spacing of bends is controlled by flow resistance, which reaches a minimum when the radius of the bend is between two and three times the width of the bed. Accordingly, meander wavelength, the distance between two successive bends on the same side—or four-bend radii—tends to concentrate between eight and 12 bed widths, although variation both within and beyond this range seems to be related to variations in the cross-sectional form of the channel. Because bed width is related to discharge, meander wavelength also is related to discharge.

Meandering channels are equilibrium features that represent the most probable channel plan geometry, where single channels deviate from straightness. This deviation, and channel division in general, is related in part to the cohesiveness of channel banks and the abundance and bulk of midstream bars. When single channels are maintained, however, the meandering form is most efficient because it minimizes variance in water-surface slope, in angle of deflection of the current, and in the work done by the river in turning. This least-work property of meander bends is readily illustrated by the trace, identical with that of stream meanders, adopted by a bent band of spring steel. Meander plan geometry is simply describable by a sine function of the relative distance along the channel bend. The least-work and minimum-variance properties of the plan geometry, however, are secured only at the expense of maximizing the variance in depth. The longitudinal profile of the bed of a meandering stream includes pools at (or slightly downstream of) the extremities of bends and riffles at the inflections between bends. Increased tightness of bend, expressed by reduction in radius and increase in total angle of deflection, is accompanied by increased depth of pool. Where riffles are built of fragments larger than sand size, they behave as kinematic waves; i.e., the speed of transport of material through a given riffle decreases as the spacing of surface fragments decreases, and the total rate of transport attains a maximum where the spacing is about two particle lengths. Numerous sand-bed streams in dry regions, however, fail to develop pool-and-riffle sequences, maintaining approximately uniform cross sections even at channel bends.

Irregularities in meanders developed in alluvium relate primarily to uneven resistance, which is often a function of varying grain size. Variations in total sinuosity are probably due in the main to adjustments of channel slope. The process of cutoff (short-circuiting of individual meanders) is favoured not only by the erosion of outer channel banks and by the tendency of meander trains to sweep down the valley but also by the stacking of meanders upstream of obstacles and by increases of sinuosity that accompany slope reduction.

Meandering streams that cut deeply into bedrock form entrenched meanders, the terminology of which is highly confused. It seems probable that, in actuality, the sole existing type of entrenched meanders is the ingrown type, where undercut slopes (river cliffs) on the outsides of bends oppose slip-off slopes (meander lobes) on the insides. For reasons not yet understood, lateral enlargement of ingrown meanders seems habitually to outpace downstream sweep, although the trimming of the upstream sides of lobes, and occasional cutoff, are well known. Many existing trains of ingrown meanders belong to valleys rather than to streams, relating to the traces of former rivers of greater discharge. Reconstruction of the original traces indicates approximate straightness at plateau level, as opposed to the inheritance of the ingrown loops from some former high-level floodplain.

In a broader context, meander phenomena cannot be understood as requiring cohesive banks of the kind usual in rivers. Meanders, with geometry comparable to that of rivers, have been recognized in the oceanic Gulf Stream and in the jet streams of the upper atmosphere. In this way, stream meanders are classed with wave phenomena in general.

Braided channels

Braided channels are subdivided at low-water stages by multiple midstream bars of sand or gravel. At high water, many or all bars are submerged, although continuous downcutting or fixation by plants, or both, plus the trapping of sediment may enable some bars to remain above water. A single meandering channel may convert to braiding where one or more bars are constructed, as downstream of a tight bend where coarse material is brought up from the pool bottom. Each of the subdivided channels is less efficient, being smaller than the original single channel. If its inefficiency is compensated by an increase in slope (i.e., by downcutting), the bar dries out and becomes vegetated and stabilized. However, many rivers that are largely or wholly braided along their length owe their condition to something more than local accidents. The braided condition involves weak banks, a very high width-depth ratio, powerful shear on the streambed (implied by the width-depth ratio), and mobile bed material. Thus, braided streams are typically encountered near the edges of land ice, where valleys are being filled with incoherent coarse sediment, and also on outwash plains, as the Canterbury Plains of South Island, New Zealand; width-depth ratios can exceed 1,000:1. Studies on terraced outwash plains demonstrate that braided streams can readily excavate their valley floors—in other words, they are by no means solely an inevitable response to valley filling.

Distributary patterns, whether on alluvial fans or deltas, pose few problems. A delta pass that lengthens is liable to lateral breaching, whereas continued deposition, on deltas and on fans, raises the channel bed and promotes sideways spill down the least gradient. The branching rivers of inland eastern Australia, flowing across basin fills that range from thin sedimentary plains to thick fluvial accumulations, have affinities with deltaic distributaries even though their patterns are only radial in part. A branch may run for tens of kilometres before joining a trunk stream, whether its own or another.