remote sensing Article Investigating Fold-River Interactions for Major Rivers Using a Scheme of Remotely Sensed Characteristics of River and Fold Geomorphology Kevin P. Woodbridge 1, Saied Pirasteh 2,* and Daniel R. Parsons 1 1 Energy and Environment Institute, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX, UK 2 Department of Surveying and Geoinformatics, Faculty of Geosciences and Environmental Engineering (FGEE), Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 611756, China * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +86-1318-3819-193 Received: 10 July 2019; Accepted: 24 August 2019; Published: 29 August 2019 Abstract: There are frequently interactions between active folds and major rivers (mean annual water 3 1 discharges > 70 m s− ). The major river may incise across the fold, to produce a water gap across the fold, or a bevelling (or lateral planation) of the top of the fold. Alternatively, the major river may be defeated to produce a diversion of the river around the fold, with wind gaps forming across the fold in some cases, or ponding of the river behind the fold. Why a river incises or diverts is often unclear, though influential characteristics and processes have been identified. A new scheme for investigating fold-river interactions has been devised, involving a short description of the major river, climate, and structural geology, and 13 characteristics of river and fold geomorphology: (1) Channel width at location of fold axis, w, (2) Channel-belt width at location of fold axis, cbw, (3)