Braided rivers: Perspectives and problems

Progress towards a fuller understanding of the dynamics and deposits of braided rivers demands an interdisciplinary approach to a host of unresolved problems. Although many advances have been made within recent years in interpreting the mechanics of flow, transport of sediment and sedimentary architecture of braided rivers many key issues remain to be addressed. In particular, several areas demand attention: the mechanisms of braid bar initiation; confluence-diffluence dynamics, the nature of sedimentary facies over a range of grain sizes and the influence of flow stage and aggradational regime upon the depositional architecture over a range of channel scales. This paper focuses upon these issues and highlights several areas of fruitful future interdisciplinary collaboration.