This textbook offers a thorough mechanical analysis of rivers from upland areas to oceans. It scrutinizes state-of-the-art methods, underlining both theory and engineering applications.

Each chapter includes a presentation of fundamental principles, followed with an engineering analysis and instructive problems, examples, and case studies illustrating engineering design. The emphasis is on river equilibrium, river dynamics, bank stabilization, and river engineering. Channel stability and river dynamics are examined in terms of river morphology, lateral migration, aggradation, and degradation.

The text provides a detailed treatment of riverbank stabilization and engineering methods. Separate chapters cover physical and mathematical models of rivers. This textbook also contains essential reading for understanding the mechanics behind the formation and propagation of devastating floods, and offers knowledge crucial to the design of appropriate countermeasures to reduce flood impact, prevent bank erosion, improve navigation, increase water supply, and maintain suitable aquatic habitat.

More than 100 exercises (including computer problems) and nearly 20 case studies enhance graduate-student learning, while researchers and practitioners seeking broad technical expertise will find it a valuable reference. Pierre Y. Julien is Professor of Civil Engineering at Colorado State University.

The Federal Highway Administration document “Highways in the River Environment – Hydraulic and Environmental Design Considerations” was first published in 1975, was revised in 1990, and is now issued as Hydraulic Design Series 6, “River Engineering for Highway Encroachments.” This document has proven to be a singularly authoritative document for the design of highway associated hydraulic structures in moveable boundary waterways. This revised document incorporates many technical advances that have been made in this discipline since 1990. In addition, Hydraulic Engineering Circulars (HEC) 18, 20, and 23, have been published since 1990. This document and the HECs provide detailed guidance on stream instability, scour, and appropriate countermeasures. In HDS-6, hydraulic problems at stream crossings are described in detail and the hydraulic principles of rigid and moveable boundary channels are discussed.

In the United States, the average annual damage related to hydraulic problems at highway facilities on the Federal-aid system is $40 million. Damages by streams can be reduced significantly by considering channel stability. The types of river changes to be carefully considered relate to: ( 1) lateral bank erosion; (2) degradation and aggradation of the streambed that continues over a period of years, and (3) natural short-term fluctuations of streambed elevation that are usually associated with the passage of floods. The major topics are: sediment transport, natural and human induced causes of waterway response, stream stabilization (bed and banks), hydraulic modeling and computer applications, and countermeasures. Case histories of typical human and natural impacts on waterways are analyzed.