Below are a list of books and papers which are relevant to RivEX.  They cover a wide range of topics and demonstrate the many uses channel metrics have in ecology, geomorphology and hydrology.  Expect this section to increase over time as papers are included.




  • Abrahams, A.D. (1984). Channel Networks: A geomorphological Perspective. Water Resources Research, 20(2), 161 - 168.


  • Altermatt, F. (2013). Diversity in riverine metacommunities: a network perspective. Aquatic Ecology, 47, 365 - 377.WWW link
  • Balkhanov, V. K. and Bashkuev Yu. V. (2004). Fractal dimension of the channel network structure of Selenga river delta. Water Conservation, 31(2), 148 - 151.


  • Belletti, B., Garcia de Leaniz, C., Jones, J. et al. (2020). More than one million barriers fragment Europe’s rivers. Nature 588, 436 - 441. WWW link


  • Brenden, T. O., Wang, L., Seelbach, P. W., Clark Jr, R. D., Wiley, M. J. and Sparks-Jackson, B. L. (2008). A spatially constrained clustering program for river valley segment delineation from GIS digital river networks. Environmental Modelling & Software, 23, 638 - 649.  WWW link


  • Nicolas Cadieux, Margaret Kalacska, Oliver T. Coomes, Mari Tanaka and Yoshito Takasaki. (2020). A Python Algorithm for Shortest-Path River Network Distance Calculations Considering River Flow Direction. Data 2020, 5(1). WWW link


  • Carling, P., Jansen, J and Meshkova, L. (2014) Multichannel rivers: their definition and classification. Earth Surf. Process. Landforms, 39, 26-37. WWW link


  • Chen, X., Wei, X., Scherer, R., Luider, C. and Darlington, W. (2006). A watershed scale assessment of in-stream large woody debris patterns in the southern interior of British Columbia. Forest Ecology and Management, 229, 50 - 62. WWW link


  • Cooper, A. R., Infante, D. M., Daniel, W. M., Wehrly, K. E., Wang, L. and Brenden, T. O. (2017). Assessment of dam effects on streams and fish assemblages of the conterminous USA. Science of the Total Environment, 586, 879-889.WWW link


  • Cote, D., Kehler, D. G., Bourne, C. and Wiersma, Y. F. (2009). A new measure of longitudinal connectivity for stream networks. Landscape Ecol, 24, 101-113. WWW link


  • Cumming, G. S. (2004). The impact of low-head dams on fish species richness in Wisconsin, USA. Ecological Applications, 14(5), 1495 - 1506.


  • Dawson, F. H. , Hornby,  D. D. and Hilton, J. (2002). A method for the automated extraction of environmental variables to help the classification of rivers in Britain. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 12(4), 391 - 403. WWW link


  • Dixon, W. , Smyth, G. K. and Chiswell, B. (1999). Optimized selection of river sampling sites. Water Research, 33(4), 971 -978.


  • Dunn, W. C., Milne, B. T, Mantilla, R. and Gupta, V. K. (2011). Scaling relations between riparian vegetation and stream order in the Whitewater River network, Kansas, USA. Landscape Ecol, 26, 983-997.WWW link


  • FitzHugh, T. W. (2005). GIS Tools for Freshwater Biodiversity Conservation Planning. Transactions in GIS, 9(2), 247 - 263. WWW link


  • Fürst, J. and Hörhan, T. (2008). Coding of watershed and river hierarchy to support GIS-based hydrological analyses at different scales. Computers and Geosciences, in press. WWW link


  • Gan, K.C. , McMahon, T. A. and Finlayson, B. L. (1992). Fractal dimensions and lengths of rivers in south-east Australia. Cartographic Journal, 29(1), 31 - 34.


  • Gleyzer, A. , Denisyuk,  M. ,Rimmer, A. and Salingar, Y. (2004). A Fast Recursive GIS Algorithm for Computing Strahler Stream Order in Braided and Nonbraided Networks. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 40(4), 937 - 946. WWW link


  • Gregory, K. J. and Walling, D. E. (1973). Drainage basin form and process. New York, John Wiley and Sons, 456 p.


  • Hansen, W. F. (2001). Identifying stream types and management implications. Forest Ecology and Management, 143, 39 - 46.


  • Herlihy, A T., Larsen, D. P., Paulsen, S. G., Urquhart N. S. and Rosenbaum, B. J. (2000). Designing a spatially balanced, randomized site selection process for regional stream surveys: the EMAP mid-Atlantic pilot study. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 63, 95  - 113.


  • Jasiewicz, J and Metz M. (2011). A new GRASS GIS toolkit for Hortonian analysis of drainage networks. Computers & GeoSciences, 37, 1162 - 1173. WWW link


  • Joshua Jones, Luca Börger, Jeroen Tummers, Peter Jones, Martyn Lucas, Jim Kerr, Paul Kemp, Simone Bizzi, Sofia Consuegra, Lucio Marcello, Andrew Vowles, Barbara Belletti, Eric Verspoor, Wouter Van de Bund, Peter Gough and CarlosGarcia de Leaniza (2019). A comprehensive assessment of stream fragmentation in Great Britain. Science of The Total Environment, 673, 756-762. WWW link
  • Ichoku, C. and Chorowicz, J. (1994). A numerical approach to the analysis and classification of channel network patterns. Water Resources Research, 30(2), 161 - 174.


  • Imbert, H., de Lavergne, S., Gayou, F., Rigaud, C. and Lambert, P. (2008). Evaluation of relative distance as new descriptor of yellow European eel spatial distribution. Ecology of Freshwater Fish, 17, 520-527.WWW link


  • Khan, S. and Fryirs, K. A. (2020). Application of globally available, coarse-resolution digital elevation models for delineating valley bottom segments of varying length across a catchment. Earth Surf. Process. Landforms 45, 2788 - 2803. WWW link
  • Lanfear, K. J. (1990). A fast algorithm for automatically computing Strahler stream order. Water Resources Bulletin, 26(6), 977 - 981.


  • Laura L. de Sosa, Helen C. Glanville, Miles R. Marshall, Sinan A. Abood, A. Prysor Williams  and Davey L. Jones (2018). Delineating and mapping riparian areas for ecosystem service assessment. Ecohydrology, 11(2), 1-16. WWW link


  • Lewin, J. (1970). A note on stream ordering. Area, 2, 32 - 35.


  • Lindsay, J. B., Rothwell, J. J. and Davies, H. (2008). Mapping outlet points used for watershed delineation onto DEM-Derived stream networks. Water Resources Research, 44, W08442.WWW link


  • Lindsay, J. B.,Yang, W. and Hornby, D. D. (2019). Drainage Network Analysis and Structuring of Topologically Noisy Vector Stream Data. ISPRS Int. J. Geo-Inf. 8, 422.WWW link


  • Kris Van Looy, Thierry Tormos and Yves Souchon (2014). Disentangling dam impacts in river networks. Ecological Indicators, 37, 10-20.WWW link


  • Makaske, B. (2001). Anastomosing rivers: a review of their classification, origin and sedimentary products. Earth-Science Reviews, 53, 149 - 196.


  • Mark, D. M. (1988). Network models in geomorphology. In Modelling Geomorphological Systems, John Wiley & Sons, 73 - 97.


  • Miller, S. N., Guertin, D. P. and Goodrich, D. C. (1996). Linking GIS and geomorphologic field research at Walnut Gulch experimental watershed. American Water Resources Association. WWW link


  • Onesti, L. J. and Miller, T. K. (1978). Topological Classifications of Drainage Networks: An Evaluation. Water Resources Research, 14(1), 144 - 148.


  • Regnauld, N. and Mackaness, W. A. (2006). Creating a hydrographic network from its cartographic representation: a case study using Ordnance Survey MasterMap data. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, Volume 20, Issue 6 July 2006 , pages 611 - 631.  WWW link 
  • Rosgen, D. L. (1994). A classification of natural rivers. Catena, 22, 169 - 199.


  • Schmidt, B. J. and Jones, N. E. (2020). A clustering program for delineating ecologically homogenous segments within a stream network using catchment area and valley landscape similarity rules. Environmental Modelling and Software, 132, 104776. WWW link
  • Jon Schwenk, Anastasia Piliouras, and Joel C. Rowland (2020). Determining flow directions in river channel networks using planform morphology and topology. Earth Surf. Dynam., 8, 87 - 102.WWW link
  • Serres, B. de and Roy, A. G. (1990). Flow direction and branching geometry at junctions in dendritic river networks. Professional Geographer, 42(2), 194 - 201. WWW link


  • Scheidegger, A. E. (1966). Effect of map scale on stream orders, Hydrological Sciences Journal, 11(3), 56-61. WWW link


  • Shreve, R. L. (1967). Infinite topologically random channel networks. J. Geol. , 75, 397 - 414.


  • Sosa L. de, L., Glanville, H. C., Marshall, M.R., Abood, S. A., Williams, A. P. and Jones, D. L. (2017). Delineating and mapping riparian areas for ecosystem service assessment. Ecohydrology. 2018;11:e1928. WWW link


  • Stanislawski, L. V., Finn, M. P., Starbuck, M., Usery, E. L., & Turley, P. (2006). Estimation of accumulated upstream drainage values in braided streams using augmented directed graphs. AutoCarto 2006, 26-28. WWW link


  • Strahler, A. N. (1952). Dynamic basis of geomorphology. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 63, 923 - 938.


  • Tarboton, D. G. , Bras, R. L. and Rodriguez-Iturbe, I. (1988). The fractal nature of river networks. Water Resources Research, 24(8), 1317 - 1322.


  • Martin Thoms,  Murray Scown  and Joseph Flotemersch (2018). Characterization of River Networks: A GIS Approach and Its Applications. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 54(4), 899-913. WWW link


  • Tsang, Y., Wieferich, D., Fung, K. et al. (2014). An approach for aggregating upstream catchment information to support research and management of fluvial systems across large landscapes. SpringerPlus 3, 589. Web Link
  • Yan, D., Wang, K., Qin, T. et al. A data set of global river networks and corresponding water resources zones divisions. Sci Data 6, 219 (2019).WWW link

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