Mapping of flow paths in large, anastomosing arid zone rivers: Cooper Creek, Australia

Abstract

Anastomosing rivers have moderately to highly sinuous, multiple, interconnected channels which form in low gradient floodplains and there are numerous examples of them in the world, such as rivers in inland Australia. Arid anastomosing rivers of Australia experience high transmission losses during floods and mapping of channels and inundation area can play an important role in quantifying the water lost via evaporation, infiltration or impoundment in wetlands. In this article, two DEM-based stream definition methods and a zero dimensional model were used to map channel patterns in Cooper Creek, Australia. The D8 and D-infinity DEM-based stream definition methods replicate a dendritic structu..