RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 



The following subsections present and discuss the results of the data 

 analysis for the 25 study sites. The five subsections represent five cate- 

 gories of river characteristics which exhibited changes resulting from 

 gravel removal operations. These include: 



• Channel configuration and process, 



• Hydrau I i cs, 



• Sedimentation, 



• Ice characteristics, and 



• Hydrology. 



Each subsection includes background information that provides the reader 

 with a knowledge of selected characteristics of undisturbed rivers and a 

 description of changes which occurred in these river characteristics as a 

 result of gravel removal operations. 



CHANNEL CONFIGURATION AND PROCESS 



The channel configuration of a river is the shape of the river chan- 

 nel (s) when looking vertically down at the river. Configurations represented 

 by the 25 study sites include braided, split, meandering, sinuous, and 

 straight. A sixth configuration, beaded, is unique to northern environments, 

 but was not investigated during this study; beaded systems are typically 

 very small and are not likely to contain much gravel. Associated with the 

 channel configurations are processes of sediment erosion and deposition 

 which form features characteristic of the configuration. The five channel 

 configurations that were used to describe the studied sites are described 

 in subsequent paragraphs. 



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