Tagged: fluvial

Hapua: developments in understanding river mouth lagoons and their responses to freshwater regimes - Waiology

Waiology • Nov 03, 2014 •

By Deirdre Hart Hapua are a type of predominantly freshwater river mouth lagoon that occurs on high energy temperate coasts. In New Zealand, they comprise a group highly-dynamic and socio-culturally important environments (Figure 1). Hapua behave differently to lagoons with tidal prisms. This means that classic estuary models cannot be applied to their understanding or management. Over the last three … Read More

Landscapes shaped by water - Waiology

Waiology • Oct 30, 2014 •

By Daniel Collins New Zealand is both a pluvial and fluvial country. A lot of water falls on, moves through, and runs off the landscape to the surrounding seas. At each step along the way water can play a role in shaping the landscape, whether by resisting or facilitating erosion or by providing environments where eroded sediment is deposited. Read More

A pluvial and fluvial country - Waiology

Waiology • Oct 14, 2014 •

By Daniel Collins As Sir Geoffrey Palmer once remarked, New Zealand is a pluvial[1] country. It rains a lot. On average, 2.3 metres of water falls across New Zealand each year, or 610,000 million m3 in volumetric terms (about 10 times the volume of Lake Taupo). This is more than most countries, but not all. Values vary from source to … Read More

Using models to understand and protect our braided rivers - Waiology

Waiology • Jun 23, 2014 •

By Murray Hicks Braided rivers, defined by networks of channels that are forever changing and shifting, are iconic features of the New Zealand landscape. Their existence depends on abundant supplies of gravelly sediment and frequent disturbance by floods and freshes. They also support unique communities of in-stream and terrestrial organisms (fish and birds) that have adapted to this dynamic physical … Read More