The Jamuna–Brahmaputra River, Bangladesh
James L. Best (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign)
Philip J. Ashworth (University of Brighton)
Erik Mosselman (TU Delft - Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineering, Deltares)
Maminul H. Sarker (Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services)
Julie E. Roden (Henley-on-Thames)
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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.