From White River to Green River - Why are they changed?
Hyoseop Woo, Moonhyeong Park, Won Kim
Tuesday 30 june 2015
9:45 - 10:00h
at Amazon (level 1)
Themes: (T) Hydro-environment, (ST) Ecohydraulics and ecohydrology
Parallel session: 4G Environment - Ecosystem
Many rivers in the world including Korea are being changed from “white” rivers to “green” rivers, i.e. from the rivers with white sand/gravel-covered riparian lands to those with green vegetation-covered ones. These changes sometimes cause a serious engineering problem of increases in flood hazard by increases in flow resistance and fixation and heightening of riparian lands. In some cases, on the other hands, they can support more diverse species with diverse environment of riparian habitats as compared with monotonous white sand and gravel rivers. This study reintroduces the patterns of causes for the succession of “white” riparian lands to “green” vegetation-covered ones. Another possible cause due probably to change in the rainfall pattern in recent years is suggested as a new cause. This new possible cause might be a result of climate change.
