Introduction
    Importance of streams
    Global distribution
    Cities
    Benefits
    Floods

Distribution of water
Origin of the Earth's water
Hydrologic cycle

Streams
    Components of a stream
        watershed or drainage basin
        flood plain
        tributaries
        drainage divide
        overland flow
        headwaters
        rills
        transport area
        trunk
        mouth
        distributaries

Stream flow and discharge
    gradient
        gradient = change in elevation per distance
        ranges from 50 m/km to <3 m/km
    stream velocity
        velocity = distance traveled per time
        ranges from >10 m/sec to 0.2 m/sec
    local velocity depends on:
        channel gradient
        location of water within channel
            slowest in straight segments at sides and bottom
            slowest in curved segments at bottom or inside curve
            fastest in straight segment at top
            fastest in curved segment in top or outside of curve
stream-bed texture
stream discharge
    discharge = width * depth * velocity
        depends on:
            size of drainage basin
            amount of precipitation
            ranges from 200,000 m^3/sec to 5 m^3/sec
 

Composition of valley's rock influence rate of stream erosion
    V-shaped valleys in temperate, humid regions
        Canyon valleys in arid regions

Stream erosion processes
    Abrasion
    Hydraulic lifting
    Dissolution

Drainage patterns
    Dendritic
    Radial
    Rectangular
    Trellis

Channel patterns
    straight streams
    braided streams
    meandering streams
    meanders
    oxbow lakes
    meander scars

Stream Transport
    Capacity - maximum amount of sediment that can be transported
         proportionate to stream discharge
    Competence - largest particle stream can transport
        proportionate to square of stream's velocity

Sediment load
    Suspended load
    Bed load
        Saltation
        Traction
    Dissolved load

Stream deposition
    Alluvium
    In-channel deposition
    mid-channel bars (longitudinal bars)
    point bars

Flood plain deposition
    flood plain sediment
    natural levees
    backswamps
    Yazoo streams

Deposition at breaks in slope (alluvial fans)

Deposition in standing water (deltas)
    delta structure
        foreset beds
        bottomset beds
        topset beds
 

Deltas:
Grow - if stream deposition is greater then erosion
Shrink - if stream deposition is less than erosion delta migration