Floodplain Sedimentation - Methods, Patterns, and Processes: A Review with Examples from the Lower Rhine, the Netherlands

Floodplain sedimentation plays a keyrole in the sediment budget of river basins, but it also relates to river management, flood protection, civil engineering, and ecological rehabilitation of rivers. Understanding of the process, therefore, is essential both from a geomorphologic and river management points of view. This paper provides a review of recent research on floodplain sedimentation, focusing on field-based methods to reconstruct and document spatial patterns of overbank sedimentation, as well on mathematical modeling approaches. Examples of floodplain sedimentation over various timescales are given for the lower Rhine River in the Netherlands. The final section synthesizes the processes, their controls, and the resulting patterns and amounts of floodplain deposition. Keywords: alluvial rivers; floodplain; sedimentation; river basin; sediment budget; contaminants; Rhine