The Research Program

My research program from 1965 to the present has addressed a variety of river-related problems. My doctoral work in Australia on the sand-bed rivers there included examination of the general geomorphology and sedimentology of some of the coastal valley fills (Hickin, 1968, 1970; Hickin & Page, 1971) as well as an examination of point-bar formation ("point dunes") in these sand-bed rivers (Hickin, 1969). In addition to fieldwork-based investigations I conducted flume experiments to isolate the principal controls on point dune sedimentation (Hickin, 1972).

My first Canadian research project sought to find the link between scrolled floodplain morphology and the channel migration processes of meandering rivers.  This inquiry led me to use floodplain scroll-bar patterns to reconstruct the history of river-bend development on Beatton River in northeast British Columbia (Hickin, 1974).  These data were combined with dendrochronological studies to provide a rather complete picture of the channel migration/floodplain construction system on that river (Hickin & Nanson, 1975; 1977a).  This period saw the beginning of a very fruitful collaboration with my first doctoral student, Gerald Nanson. Gerald now is Professor of Earth Sciences at the University of Wollongong in Australia.

My work on channel migration identified a limiting channel curvature condition beyond which lateral migration ceased in river bends; I wondered why this happens and the question informed several related studies of river-bend flow hydraulics during the late 70s (Hickin, 1977b, 1978) including work on modes of deposition (concave-bank bench sediments) in the separation zones associated with tightly curved river bends (Hickin, 1979).  This period saw a shift of my field operations to Squamish River in southwestern British Columbia about 100 km north of Vancouver.

A long-standing interest in the application of geophysical methods to geomorphic problems developed more tangible expression at the close of the decade when I conducted a study of seismic P-wave velocities in various kinds of unconsolidated sediments present in the BC Lower Mainland (Hickin, 1980a).

Further elaboration of the channel migration process across a much more diverse set of rivers in western Canada was at the centre of my research activities in the 1980s (Hickin, 1983b, 1984a, 1984b, Hickin & Nanson, 1988b, Nanson and Hickin, 1986b, Hickin, 1985c, 1988b).

My views of the large question of the character and causes of river channel changes were invited by the IAS and published at this time (Hickin, 1981,1983a). This same pause for scientific introspection also yielded a commentary on the generally underestimated role of vegetation in explaining river behaviour and morphology (Hickin, 1984c).

Another particularly fruitful collaboration began at about this time. From the mid 80s to early 90s Gary Brierley completed his MSc and PhD with me (he is now Professor & Head of Geography at the University of Auckland, NZ, via the School of Earth Sciences at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia). The Squamish River became the laboratory for an intensive examination of sediment sorting and storage and of floodplain sedimentology in relation to river planform (Brierley and Hickin, 1985a, 1991b, 1992). At the same time studies of Squamish River channel response to flooding were also conducted (Hickin & Sichingabula, 1988a, 1989a). My views on the validity and usefulness of river-planform facies models are discussed in a review of Canadian sedimentology (Hickin, 1993b).

My interest in floodplain formation in river bends of tight curvature where flow separation plays a role led me to a preliminary study of the counterpoint deposits in the confined meanders of Muskwa and Fort Nelson Rivers in northern British Columbia (Hickin, 1986a). Much remains to be learned about these rivers.

Further work aimed at better understanding the morphodynamics of Squamish River led to surveys of sediment yield (Hickin, 1989b) and particularly to the role of eddies (boils) in mobilizing coarse sediment through the estuary (Rood & Hickin, 1989) and their relation to bedforms and flow structure (Babakaiff & Hickin, 1996c).  The sedimentological gradient across the fully fluvial to estuarine environments of Squamish River delta/floodplain are reported in another recent study (Gibson & Hickin, 1997).

In the 90s I returned to exploring the use of geophysical tools in geomorphology in a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) study of the floodplain architecture of the North Thompson River near Kamloops, BC (Leclerc & Hickin, 1997a). Other related work continues.

Also in the 90s studies were conducted to examine the longer time scale questions relating to the influence of changing Holocene sediment supply on river behaviour and morphology in coastal British Columbia.  This work focused on two river valleys: Squamish and Seymour near Vancouver.  Greg Brooks, one of my doctoral students (now a GSC Research Scientist in Ottawa), completed a detailed Holocene sediment budget for Squamish River and discovered much about non-glacial sediment supply and the geomorphic history of the area including major post-glacial impoundments of the valley related to avalanching (Brooks & Hickin, 1991a, 1996a). Similar investigations spearheaded by one of my MSc students, Olav Lian (now at the University of the Fraser Valley, UFV, via a PhD at Western and faculty appointments in New Zealand and Royal Holloway, University of London) in Seymour Valley revealed the strong influence of paraglacial sediment supply and a long geomorphic history reaching back beyond the Fraser Glaciation (Lian & Hickin, 1993a; 1996b).

An interest in the seasonal modulation of channel morphology led to a preliminary study on scour and fill on Fraser River at Marguerite in BC (Hickin, 1995a,b) and informed work recently completed as two MSc theses on Squamish and Lillooet Rivers north of Vancouver. In a one-year high-resolution study of bed-elevation changes on Squamish River near Brackendale, BC we have shown that the seasonal signal of scour and fill observed on the much larger Fraser River at Marguerite is present but complicated by the downstream translation of multiple waves of sediment causing "pulse scour and fill" (Paige & Hickin, 2000).  The cause of these sediment waves is not known but their behaviour is not apparently coupled to the variation in discharge.  A similar one-year study of bedform morhology revealed a pronounced discharge-driven seasonal signal in bedform morphology and flow resistance in a sand-bed reach of Lillooet River near Pemberton, BC (Prent & Hickin, 2001).

During this period (1995-2001) GPR was used to better define the connection between radar architecture of sedimentary bodies and the environment of deposition.  The doctoral work of Csaba Ekes is a major work in this regard and has contributed to the understanding of paraglacial depositional history of the valley fill in Squamish Valley, BC (Friele, Ekes & Hickin, 1997, Ekes & Hickin, 2001).

In the most recent period (2001-2009) several MSc theses have focused on contemporary processes in river channels.  Step-pool and cascade morphology on a reach of Mosquito Creek, North Vancouver BC, is explored in Wooldridge & Hickin (2002).  A new type of hydraulic geometry (interchannel hydraulic geometry) for describing multiple channel morphology is introduced and used to demonstrate on Columbia River, BC, that, contrary to some published claims, channel splitting in anastomosed rivers constrained by low slope can lead to hydraulic inefficiency (Tabata & Hickin, 2003).

MSc-based work completed in the last decade includes a study of Fitzsimmons Creek (Whistler, BC) in which GPR imaging and sequential aerial photography of a prograding fan delta are used to characterize the highly variable record of bed-material transport rate over a 50-year period (Pelpola & Hickin, 2004).  A study of the radar architecture of channel bars in wandering gravel-bed rivers (Squamish and Fraser) is reported in Wooldridge & Hickin (2005) and is further developed in Rice, Church, Wooldridge and Hickin (2008).  A study of flow resistance in steep mountain streams is also recently available in Reid and Hickin (2008).  A companion paper on the low-flow hydraulic geometry of these steep mountain streams is now also available in Reid, Hickin and Babakaiff (2010).

Earlier work on the channel migration of freely meandering rivers in western Canada has recently been extended by Tami Nicoll in her MSc study to the case of confined meandering channels (Nicoll & Hickin, 2009). Tami has been able to show that these rivers are similar in morphology and behaviour to their freely meandering counterparts although some differences in the statistics of planform geometry are also evident.  In the process of seeking answers about these differences the channel-migration data-base has been significantly expanded.

My ongoing interest in environmental change gets further attention in a paper on the rate of floodplain reworking in relation to increased storminess in the Squamish River catchment. This work is the subject of an MSc thesis by Greg Bauch and was recently published in ESP&L (Bauch & Hickin, 2011).

Current Research

Currently only one research project is underway:  georadar stratigraphy and facies of river bars (on Fraser River) as a guide to bar evolution (Natalie Helmstetter, PhD).

Future Research

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