Relating to a river bank. The riparian zone is composed of the area of land adjacent to streams and rivers. This zone is often a narrow strip between the channel and hill slope in headwater areas but also occurs as a more extensive floodplain adjacent to larger rivers (Naiman and Decamps (1997)). A river and its surrounding riparian vegetation are two dynamic systems that interact through several hydrological, geomorphological, and ecological processes; see Perucca et al. (2007) River Resources Res. 43, 3 on the role played by vegetation on meandering river morphodynamics. For an exhaustive treatment of the topic, see Hill in J. Jones and P. Mulholland, eds (2000). Riparian vegetation dynamics are driven by allogenic hydrogeomorphological factors, with autogenic (plant-induced) influences affecting both plant dynamics and the river environment from the earliest stages of plant establishment, and becoming more important as landform stability is achieved (Francis (2006) Area 38, 4).