Planform cyclicity in an unstable reach: Complex fluvial response to environmental change

Long-and short-term channel changes are documented and analysed for a historically unstable reach of the River Severn at Llandinam, mid-Wales. Long-term changes (the last 150 years), reconstructed from 10 archival sources, are characterized by channel planform switching between meandering (1836-1840 and 1948-1963) and braided (1884-1903 and 1975-present) phases. Short-term changes, monitored by detailed planform surveys over a 2·5 year period, showed smaller-scale channel adjustments involving channel switching, bar accretion and channel expansion. Phases of braiding at Llandinam have been triggered by extrinsic controls, primarily flooding, but intrinsic controls (floodplain sediments, planform evolution and channel gradient) have been influential in priming the reach prior to destabilization. Flow regulation on the River Severn since 1968 has partly frozen the planform of the contemporary braid zone. Management of channel planform adjustments, where environmental change is phased in over time, must be informed by a knowledge of the potential for triggered planform switches. In addition, the effects of environmental change on fluvial systems are often historically contingent upon the state of the channel at the time of impact.