LOKHTIN

RUSSIA (see also List of Individuals)

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.. 1849 Saint Petersburg/RU -.. 1919 Petrograd/RU

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After graduation from the Saint Petersburg Institute of Transportation Engineers in 1875, Vladimir Mikhailovich Lokhtin took part in work to improve navigation on the tributaries of the Kama River. From 1884 to 1890 he supervised the channeling of the Dnester River by a working system that he had previously devised. From 1892 to 1899 he directed the organization and the execution of similar works on the Volga River.

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Lokhtin's major work, The mechanism of the river bed, published in 1895 deals with the formation of riverbeds. The effects of river engineers on the river morphology were accounted for with a particular emphasis on the development of inland navigation and the economics of the river routes of Russia. Lokhtin was further interested in different river patterns and posed the question why the nature makes rivers look so different. Lokhtin postulated in his 1897 paper that a river is formed by three independent factors, namely the discharge regime depending on the climatic and the soil conditions, the bed slope conditioned by the relief of the river catchment, and by the erodibility of the river bed depending on the sediment properties. These three controls determine the features of the river pattern and the hydraulic conditions of the flow. Lokhtin offered a channel development criterion, defined as the ratio between the stream power and the bed erodibility. Lower values of this ratio correspond to stable sinuous meandering rivers, whereas higher ratios conform to unstable divided or to braided streams. A number of similar criteria both on the theoretical and the empirical investigations were developed from this pioneering research. Lokhtin was also the editor of the journal Vodnye puti i shosseinye dorogi, the Water Routes and Highways.

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_{Alabyan, A.M., Chalov, R.S. (1998). Types of river channel patterns and their natural controls. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 23: 467-474.}

_{Anonymous (1977). Lokhtin, Vladimir Mikhailovich. Great Soviet Encyclopedia 15: 121.}

_{MacMillan: New York.}

_{Fedoseyev, I.A. (1973). Lokhtin, V.M. Dictionary of scientific biography 8: 465-467. Lokhtin, V.M. (1878). The Chusovaya River. Saint Petersburg (in Russian).}

_{Lokhtin, V.M. (1886). The Dniester River: Its navigation, properties and improvement. Inzhener (9/10): 410-441; (11/12): 485-546 (in Russian).}

_{Lokhtin, V.M. (1897). About a mechanism of river channels. Saint Petersburg (in Russian).}

_{Lokhtin, V.M. (1905). Influence de la destruction et du desséchement des marais sur le régime et le débit des rivières. 10 Congrès de Navigation Milano S1(Q2): 1-26.}