The Jamuna–Brahmaputra River, Bangladesh

Book chapter (2022)

Authors

James L. Best University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Philip J. Ashworth University of Brighton
E. Mosselman Deltares, Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineering - CEG
Maminul H. Sarker Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services
Julie E. Roden Henley-on-Thames
Research Group
Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineering (CEG) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2022 James L. Best, Philip J. Ashworth, E. Mosselman, Maminul H. Sarker, Julie E. Roden
DOI
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https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119412632.ch20
More Info
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Published Date

2022

Language

English

Reuse Rights

Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.

Faculty

Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Department

Hydraulic Engineering

Research Group

Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineering

Abstract

Bangladesh is dominated by three great rivers – the Jamuna–Brahmaputra, Ganga, and Meghna – that combine to feed sediment into one of the World's largest deltas in the Bay of Bengal. The Jamuna River has developed in a region of significant tectonic activity associated with Himalayan uplift and development of the Bengal foredeep. The bedload, although only ~10% of the total sediment load, is critical in generating a wide array of bedforms of different scale that drive channel change and migration. Within the Jamuna River, the ubiquitous occurrence of bifurcations and confluences is a key aspect of the river channel pattern and dynamics, and these features form important nodes in the braidbelt. The nature of floodplain sedimentation and inundation is vital in planning annual crop growth and may adopt great significance in the ongoing debate on the sources, causes, and accumulation of arsenic in the groundwaters of Bangladesh.