Effects of Bank Revetment on Sacramento River, California

2 Geomorphologist and Hydraulic Engineer, respectively, Water Engineering & Technology, Inc., Fort Collins, Colorado. Abstract: Twelve low radius of curvature bends, half of which were rivetted, were studied in the Butte Basin reach of Sacramento River, California, to determine whether bank revetment deleteriously affected salmonid habitat. At low discharge (128.6 cubic meters/s) it was demonstrated that revetment does not cause channel narrowing or deepening, nor does it prevent reentrainment of gravels on point bars. Point bar sediments in rivetted bends are not coarser than those in non-rivetted bends. Point bar morphology is stagedependent, and therefore, point bars are both sources and sinks for spawning-size gravel which can mitigate against reduced gravel recruitment due to bank revetment.