XChannel is a hydro-morphodynamic model of cross-channel evolution. The model simulates the evolution of river cross-section shape due to transverse bedload transport processes under the assumption of equilibrium longitudinal transport. Transverse sediment transport processes included in the model include:
- Transverse transport due to secondary currents (spiral flow) induced by a specified bend radius
- Transverse slope effects on bedload transport
- Bank erosion
XChannel is written in matlab but can be compiled to run without a matlab license (a license is still required for the compilation).
A full description of the hydrodynamic and sediment transport equations used in XChannel, as well as their numerical implementation is contained in:
- Stecca G., Measures R.J., Hicks D.M. (2017) A framework for the analysis of non-cohesive bank erosion algorithms in morphodynamics modelling. Water Resources Research. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017WR020756.
XChannel release v1 was used for the analysis presented in this paper and is archived permanently on Zenodo: