Abstract
It is commonly observed that river channels become unstable to shift their courses repeatedly particularly when bed aggradation is taking place. On the contrary, river channels are stable and maintain their courses under bed degradation. We study the effect of bed aggradation and degradation on stability of river channels. We perform linear stability analysis of channel meander taking account of gradual bed aggradation and degradation. It is found from the analysis that bed aggradation decreases stability of channels and induce channel meandering while bed degradation stabilize channels and inhibit channel meandering.
