DATING FLUVIAL PROCESSES FROM HISTORICAL DATA AND ARTIFACTS

Geographers have long used historical data and artifacts to reconstruc t past landscapes. Many of these same data can provide powerful tools for dating stream processes over the past century or so but applicatio ns can range from months to millennia, Historical techniques are impor tant not only to mainstream geomorphological investigations but also t o fluvial applications in environmental management, The approach is us eful for human-induced fluvial changes as well as for those occurring naturally. This paper is intended as an introduction to several of the primary techniques. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.