Rivers have fascinated humanity for centuries. Most prosperous cities around theworld have been founded along rivers. Today, river engineers are still designing structures to draw benefits from the fluvial system for developing societies. It is clear that river engineering is not based solely on a simple understanding of local hydrodynamic forces, but also on an encompassing knowledge of the watershed that supplies water and sediment to dynamic river systems. Expertise in river mechanics combines knowledge of watershed climatology, geomorphology, and hydrology, with a deep understanding of hydrodynamic forces governing the motion of water and sediment in complex river systems. State-of-the-art teaching of river mechanics clearly requires study material that emphasizes both theoretical concepts and practical engineering technology. Ideally, scientists should develop new concepts that may be applicable to engineering design, and practitioners should understand why certain structures work and why others fail.

This textbook has been prepared for engineers and scientists seeking broadbased technical expertise in river mechanics. It has been specifically designed for graduate students, for scholars actively pursuing scientific research, and for practitioners keeping up with developments in river mechanics. The prerequisites simply include basic knowledge of undergraduate fluid mechanics and partial differential equations. The textbook Erosion and Sedimentation, by the same author and Cambridge University Press, serves as prerequisite material for the graduate course on river mechanics taught at Colorado State University.