Abstract
In the process of a fluvial evolution, the water discharge, sediment
charge and stream energy expenditure dominant the channel patterns of a
river. Given water and sediment, an alluvial channel is self-organizing,
adjust to achieve a stable equilibrium state, and form a characteristic
channel geometry (channel width, depth and slope). In the equilibrium
condition which is also said to be in regime or graded, the flux of the
water and sediment from the watershed should be equal to the flux of the
downstream channel(s). By studying bed load transportation and stream
power conversion on a steady and uniform stream, we suggest two
characteristic parameters that are energy conversion length and regime
transportation length of sediment. The regime equation and equations of
fractal features are set here. All cross-section variables (stream
width, depth and velocity) of a regime stream, who theoretically derived
under the equilibrium of sediment transportation and the conversion of
stream power, are exclusively determined by the two lengths and the
water discharge.