MECHANISMS UNDERLYING THE FORMATION OF CROSS-SHORE PARALLEL TIDAL CHANNEL SYSTEMS

Worldwide, tidal channel systems exhibit various planform m orphologies, including dendritic, distributary, braided, interconnected, and parallel channels. Among these, complex dendritic channel network systems have been extensively studied, with a focus on their remarkable tree-like morphology and associated scaling properties. In contrast, parallel channel systems that are prevalent in many coastal and estuarine environments worldwide, have received comparably little attention (Hughes, 2012; Perillo, 2019). We conducted com prehensive m orphological analyses of 275 parallel channels selected from 20 sites worldwide, encom passing diverse geom orphological settings, including estuaries, lagoons, and open coasts. M oreover, to gain deeper insights into the physical processes underlying parallel channel inception, we performed morphodynamic simulations to disentangle the influence of alongshore tidal currents and bed topography.