Modeling vegetation controls on fluvial morphological trajectories

Abstract The role of riparian vegetation in shaping river morphology is widely recognized. The interaction between vegetation growth and riverbed evolution is characterized by complex nonlinear feedbacks, which hinder direct estimates of the role of key elements on the morphological evolutionary trajectories of gravel bed rivers. Adopting a simple theoretical framework, we develop a numerical model which couples hydromorphodynamics with biomass dynamics. We perform a sensitivity analysis considering several parameters as flood intensity, type of vegetation, and groundwater level. We find that the inclusion of vegetation determines a threshold behavior, identifying two possible equilibrium configurations: unvegetated versus vegetated bars. Stable vegetation patterns can establish only under specific conditions, which depend on the different environmental and species‐related characteristics. From a management point of view, model results show that relatively small changes in water availability or species composition may determine a sudden shift between dynamic unvegetated conditions to more stable, vegetated rivers.