A STUDY OF ZONAL DISTRIBUTION OF RIVER CHANNEL PATTERNS IN CHINA

The concept of river channel pattern frequency is proposed in this stu dy. Starting from this concept, an attempt has been made to deal with the zonal distribution of channel patterns of alluvial rivers in the m onsoon influenced eastern part of China, with plotted curves showing t he channal pattern frequencies of meandering, stable braided and wande ring braided rivers varying with latitude. The result obtained indicat es a zonality of river channel pattern distribution to a certain degre e. Furthermore, on the basis of runoff-sediment combinations of rivers resulting from the different combinations of physico-geographical fac tors such as climate and vegetation in river basins, the reasons for t his zonality is discussed, and some empirical relations of river chann el pattern frequency to the indices describing zonal physico-geographi cal factors are established.