River incision

Though it is a natural process, it can be accelerated rapidly by human factors including land use changes such as timber harvest, mining, agriculture, and road and dam construction.

[2] Traditional logging in the West coast of the United States included many practices which increased river incision.

Stable material on the river bed mitigate erosion,[10] removing this armoring layer of gravel, boulders, etc.

Over geologic time, as mountains rise higher, water erodes deep gorges and channels, dissecting the landscape.

In some instances, such as the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, up to 1 km of incision has been shown to have occurred over the last 5 million years.

Outside of glaciated regions, rivers are responsible for sculpting uplifted terrain into arborescent valley networks and creating the relief that drives gravitational transport processes such as landsliding".

[citation needed] Riparian forests are some of the most productive and diverse ecosystems on the planet and are for this reason the focus of many restoration projects throughout the United States.

At low erosion rates increased stream incision may make gentle slopes to erode creating convex-up forms.