The consensus around the need for a shift in river management approaches to include more natural processes is steadily growing amongst scientists, practitioners, and governmental agencies. The freedom space for rivers concept promotes the delineation of a single space that integrates multiple fluvial dynamics such as floods, lateral migration, channel avulsions, and riparian wetlands connectivity. The objective of this research is to assess the validity of the hydrogeomorphological approach to delineate the freedom space for an extensive sampling of river reaches, covering 167 km, in contrasting watersheds in Quebec (Canada). Comparative analysis was conducted on the relative importance of erosion and flood processes on the freedom space delineation for various fluvial types. Semiautomated tools based on light detection and ranging (LiDAR) digital elevation models were also tested on an additional 274 km of watercourses to facilitate freedom space mapping over extensive zones and for highly dynamics environments such as alluvial fans. In the studied reaches, flood and erosion processes occur respectively, on average, in a space equivalent to 2.6 and 20.6 channel widths. In unconfined landscapes, flood processes represent an area up to almost four times the area of erosion processes expected in a 50‐year period. In partly confined and confined environments, erosion processes are more likely to exceed flooding zone, and therefore need to be integrated in the mapping. This study helps better determine the conditions for which the full methodology of freedom space mapping is required or where semiautomated methods can be used. It provides useful guidelines for the implementation of the freedom space approach.

中文翻译：

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开发涵盖大多数河流过程的测绘方法：从魁北克（加拿大）的河流自由空间概念中学到的经验教训

在科学家，从业人员和政府机构中，关于改变河流管理方法以包括更多自然过程的需求的共识正在稳步增长。河流自由空间的概念促进了对单个空间的界定，该空间整合了多种河流动力学，例如洪水，横向迁移，河道撕裂和河岸湿地连通性。这项研究的目的是评估水文地貌方法划定自由空间的广泛性，与魁北克（加拿大）的分水岭形成鲜明对比，该河段覆盖167公里。对各种河流类型的侵蚀和洪水过程在自由空间划定上的相对重要性进行了比较分析。基于光检测和测距（LiDAR）数字高程模型的半自动工具还在另外的274公里水道上进行了测试，以促进在广阔区域上的自由空间制图以及冲积扇等高动态环境。在所研究的河段中，洪水和侵蚀过程平均分别在相当于2.6和20.6通道宽度的空间内发生。在无限制的景观中，洪水过程所占面积几乎是50年预期的侵蚀过程面积的四倍。在部分受限和受限的环境中，侵蚀过程更可能超过洪泛区，因此需要将其整合到地图中。这项研究有助于更好地确定需要完整的自由空间映射方法论或可以使用半自动方法的条件。它为实施自由空间方法提供了有用的指导。