Rh. French et al., ALLUVIAL-FAN - PROPOSED NEW PROCESS-ORIENTED DEFINITIONS FOR ARID SOUTHWEST, Journal of water resources planning and management, 119(5), 1993, pp. 588-598
The Flood Control District of Maricopa County, Arizona, recently compl
eted a study whose purpose was to select and describe four alluvial fa
ns for instrumentation and long-term monitoring. One primary result of
this study was the development of new technical, process-oriented def
initions to describe and differentiate among the types of alluvial fan
s found in central Arizona. These alluvial fans, while exhibiting the
generic, regulatory fan shape, are subject to different types of hydra
ulic processes. Tables identifying the characteristics and hydraulic p
rocesses on each type of landform found in the study area were also de
veloped. These new definitions provide a framework for engineers and r
egulators to discuss landforms with a common terminology that is tied
to the relevant expected hydraulic processes.