Abstract:

River confluences are areas where environmental elements such as flow structures, sediment deposition, water quality, and organisms undergo significant changes in river networks, and are the key nodes for flooding and pollutant transport. This review summarizes the basic characteristics of flow structures and pollutant transport at river confluences and their responses to different conditions, along with the important impacts of complex flow structures and habitats on water safety issues in previous field measurements, laboratory experiments, numerical simulations, and theoretical studies. Future research should focus on enhancing the understanding of the hydraulic characteristics of river confluences under unsteady flow conditions, further clarifying the response mechanisms between pollutant transport and hydraulic parameters, and improving the flood safety and the water ecological environmental quality through the combination of engineering layout and hydraulic optimization and regulation.

Key words: river confluences, flow structures, pollutant transport, water safety