Bank erosion

Stream bank erosion along Pimmit Run in McLean, Virginia, the result of upstream development. Bank erosion is natural, but can be accelerated by humans.

Bank erosion is the wearing away of the banks of a stream or river. This is distinguished from erosion of the bed of the watercourse, which is referred to as scour.

The roots of trees growing by a stream are undercut by such erosion. As the roots bind the soil tightly, they form abutments which jut out over the water. These have a significant effect upon the rate and progress of the erosion.[1]

  1. ^ Ian Rutherford, James Grove (2004), "The Influence of Trees on Stream Bank Erosion", Riparian vegetation and fluvial geomorphology, American Geophysical Union, ISBN 978-0-87590-357-6