Long term effects of water mills on the longitudinal river profile and the trapping efficiency of floodplains

Abstract

Our results
are confirmed by field observations in small streams (Fig. 1) in Western
Europe. The calculated time scales suggest that bed erosion in rivers with
formerly mill activity may continue for several hundreds of years. A comparison
between water mill systems in Western Europe and the USA shows that, even
though there are fundamental differences in water mill design, the morphological
processes caused by the construction and the removal of water mills on both
continents result in net incision of the river bed into the valley bottom, a reduced
trapping efficiency of floodplains for suspended sediments, a terraced
landscape, a disconnection of the floodplains from the river bed, and reduced
floodplain inundation rates