This is a field I have worked in for more than ten years, in long-standing collaboration with a professor at Wuhan University in China. Our research primarily focuses on modeling river morphodynamic characteristics and their changes under the influence of climate change and human disturbance, drawing on remote sensing imagery, GIS-based spatial analysis, and hydrological and geomorphological modeling to characterize river planform evolution over time. Our work spans several major watersheds on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau—including the Yellow, Yangtze, Lancang, and Yarlung Tsangpo rivers—and examines a range of river types, from braided and anabranching channels to meandering systems, each shaped by distinct combinations of sediment supply, discharge regime, and human intervention such as damming and land use change.
Recently, I completed an in-depth review synthesizing more than a decade of our findings and reflecting on the broader patterns of river morphodynamics revealed across these studies. The review draws together our work on channel migration, bar formation and evolution, and hydrological regime shifts, offering a comparative perspective on how these diverse river systems across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are responding to a changing climate and intensifying human pressures.