SMALL SCALE PARTICLE ORGANIZATION IN NATURAL STREAMS

In many regions, cobble and boulder-bed channels do not exhibit well defined bedforms, yet the channels are remarkably stable. Bed particles found in boulder-bed streams are larger than the individual particles accounted for in bed mobility models and smaller than bedforms such as riffles and pools. To examine the stability of these channels, we considered neighboring particle interaction as an intermediate scale of particle organization. Data collected and observed from a rare flood event provides a means to estimate if bed particles spatial organization affects channel stability. This work examine the spatial organization of the bed particles and determine if the spatial organization is random or demonstrates organization that is significant enough to affect channel stability.