Bank (geography)

A man-made lake in Keukenhof, Netherlands with grass banks.

A sloping sandy point bar (close side) and the vegetation-stabilized cut bank (far side) on the Namoi River, New South Wales, Australia. These two constitute the banks of the river.

A geographic bank has four definitions and applications:

1. Limnology: The shoreline of a pond, swamp, estuary, reservoir, or lake. The grade (slope) can vary from vertical to a shallow slope.
2. Freshwater ecology: (1) The location of a riparian zone habitats: along the upland and lowland river and stream beds. (2) The ecology around and depending on a marsh, swamp, slough, or estuary.
3. Fluvial: A riverbank or stream-bank: the terrain alongside the bed of a river, creek, or stream.
4. Navigation: A singular or succession of shoals of alluvium, such as silt and sand, constricting or blocking access to an area. This can be in the course of or at the mouth of a navigable river, in a harbor, or on the continental shelves. An example is a sandbar.

References

• Luna B. Leopold, M. Gordon Wolman, John P. Miller. (1995). Fluvial processes in geomorphology. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 9780486685885.