Linking morphology and riparian vegetation characteristics in an alpine regulated gravel-bed river

The pattern of riparian vegetation in gravel bed rivers depends on the climate, hydrological regime, and the morphological set- tings of the river. Also, the marked spatial variability of density, height, species diversity, age, and rates of growth reflects the very complex nature of bed colonization, the strong influence of sequences and magnitude of floods, and the feedbacks bet- ween morphology, vegetation and hydraulics. Furthermore, a wide array of human impacts acting at either the basin or river network scales can influence substantially the morphological dynamics and thus the characteristics, types and distribution of vegetation within the river corridor. The aim of this work is to analyse the relationship between the vegetation structure and the morphological characteristics of two sub-reaches of the Piave river which suffered intense and multiple human impacts espe- cially due to dam building and in-channel gravel mining. The Piave river shows a complex pattern of vegetation distribution along the cross-sections, with no clear relationship between the elevation and the development of plant communities as a result of a recent tendency of active channel widening after a long period of channel narrowing.