Spring 2022 Syllabus

Fluvial Geomorphology - WATS/GEO 5150/6150

Schedule

Fluvial Geomorphology - 12811 - WATS 5150 - 001

Class	Time	Days	Where	Dates	Instructors
Discussion, Workshop and/or Field Trips	1:30 pm - 5:00 pm	Monday	Distance Education 105	Jan 10 - Apr 25, 2022	Joseph Michael Wheaton
Lecture /Discussion	1:30 pm - 2:30 pm	Wednesday	Distance Education 105	Jan 10 - Apr 25, 2022	Joseph Michael Wheaton

This is a face to face delivery class, and we plan to meet in person at at Distance Education 105 most every Monday and Wednesday (unless a field trip is scheduled for Monday by prior arrangement) if permissible. However, we are in the midst of a pandemic (see student guidelines). Stay home if you're sick, have symptoms or have been exposed. I will turn on Zoom each time we meet in person to make it easy for you to participate if you are in self-isolation, or quarantine and would like to participate. If you are too sick to participate during class, please let me know ahead of time and I can record our class session. We may also sometimes opt to meet virtually as a class and in such instances we will be using the same Zoom Link.

Course Schedule / Outline

Course materials will be made available one week prior to the start of term.

Rough Plan:

Week	M/W	Date	Module	Topic	Book Chapter
1	Mon	1/10	1	Geomorphic Analysis - Reading the Landscape	Chapter 1: Geomorphic analysis of river systems: an approach to reading the landscape
1	Wed	1/12	2	Key Concepts in Fluvial Geomorphology	Chapter 2: Key concepts in river geomorphology
2	Mon	MLK Holiday Monday 1/17
2	Wed	1/19	3	Catchment-Scale Controls on River Geomorphology	Chapter 3: Catchment-scale controls on river geomorphology
3	Mon	1/24	4	Catchment Hydrology	Chapter 4: Catchment hydrology
3	Wed	1/26	4	Catchment Hydrology	Chapter 4: Catchment hydrology
4	Mon	1/31	5	Hydraulics	Chapter 5: Impelling and resisting forces in river systems
4	Wed	2/2	5	Hydraulics	Chapter 5: Impelling and resisting forces in river systems
5	Mon	2/7	6	Fluvial Geomorphic Processes	Chapter 6: Sediment movement and deposition in river systems
5	Wed	2/9	6	Fluvial Geomorphic Processes	Chapter 6: Sediment movement and deposition in river systems
6	Mon	2/14	7	Channel Geometry	Chapter 7: Channel geometry
6	Wed	2/16	8	Instream Forms	Chapter 8: Instream geomorphic units
7	Mon	Presidents Day Monday 2/21; No Class
7	Wed	2/23	8	Instream Forms	Chapter 8
8	Mon	2/28	9	Floodplain Forms & Processes	Chapter 9: Floodplain forms and processes
8	Wed	3/2	9	Floodplain Forms & Processes	Chapter 9
	Mon - Fri	Sring Break; No Class	3/7 to 3/11	Optional Field Trip TBD
9	Mon	3/14	10	River Diversity	Chapter 10: River diversity
9	Wed	3/16	10	River Diversity	Chapter 10
10	Mon	3/21	11	River Behavior	Chapter 11: River behaviour
10	Wed	3/23	11	River Behavior	Chapter 11
11	Mon	3/28	12	River Evolution	Chapter 12: River evolution
11	Wed	3/30	12	River Evolution	Chapter 12
12	Mon	4/4	13	Human Impacts on River Systems	Chapter 13: Human impacts on river systems
12	Wed	4/6	13	Human Impacts on River Systems	Chapter 13
13	Mon	4/11	14	Sediment Flux at Catchment Scale	Chapter 14: Sediment flux at the catchment scale: source-to-sink relationships
13	Wed	4/13	14	Sediment Flux at Catchment Scale	Chapter 14
14	Mon	4/18	15	Applications of Fluvial Geomorphology	Chapter 15: The usefulness of river geomorphology: reading the landscape in practice
14	Wed	4/20	15	Applications of Fluvial Geomorphology	Chapter 15
15	Mon	4/25		Projects
15	Tue	4/26			Last Day of Classes 4/26/22

Instructor

Joe Wheaton

Professor of Riverscapes; Fluvial Geomorphologist; Restoration Practitioner

Office Hours:

Tuesday, 11:00 to 12:00 MT - Zoom or In-Person at NR360

Joe's Affiliations:

1. Utah State University

Professor in Department of Watershed Sciences

2. Anabranch Solutions

Co-Founder, Co-Owner & Principal

3. Riverscapes Consortium

Co-Founder

The Students and Their Work

2022 Cohort

Their hard work is showcased in some of their course websites below.

Student	Student Status and Department	Course Website
Gretchen Dana	Undergrad in Environmental Studies
Diane Wagner	Graduate in WATS
Steph Aristizabal	Undergrad in MRAE
Megan Conley	Graduate in CEE
Julia Bennion	Undergrad in WATS

Great examples from the 2022 class

Julia had some excellently annotated images from our field trip to Spring Hollow that explain some fundamental hydraulic processes.

Megan created a couple of clean, informative field sketches, also from her Spring Hollow site visit.

Here she very clearly outlines some hydraulic processes from a photo we took with the drone:

Steph did a great job of explaining a hydraulic jump in this video.

Steph's Hydraulic Jump Video

Gretchen has been painting beautifully informative field sketches for her various assignments: