{{short description|Land alongside a body of water}} {{redirect-multi|3|Riverbank|Left bank|Right bank||Riverbank (disambiguation)|and|Left Bank (disambiguation){{!}}Left Bank|and|Right Bank (disambiguation){{!}}Right Bank}} {{about-distinguish-text|terrain alongside a body of water|shoal, a submerged ridge sometimes called a "bank"}} [[File:Perfume_River_Bank,_as_seen_from_Trường_Tiền_Bridge,_2019.jpg|thumb|A natural grass bank of the Perfume River in Huế, Vietnam]] [[File:Kuekenhoff Canal 002.jpg|thumb|An artificial lake with grass banks in Keukenhof, Netherlands]]
In geography, a '''bank''' is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as "banks" in different fields of geography.
In limnology, a "stream bank" or "river bank" is the terrain alongside the bed of a river, creek, or stream.<ref name="Leopold1995">{{cite book |isbn=978-0-486-68588-5|url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Fluvial_Processes_in_Geomorphology/BLkGyV8RhaYC|author1=Luna B. Leopold |author1-link=Luna Leopold |author2=M. Gordon Wolman |author2-link=M. Gordon Wolman |author3=John P. Miller |year=1995 |publisher=Dover Publications|location=New York|title=Fluvial Processes in Geomorphology}}</ref> The bank consists of the sides of the channel, backwater between which the flow is confined.<ref name="Leopold1995" /> Stream banks are of particular interest in fluvial geography, which studies the processes associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. ''Bankfull discharge'' is a discharge great enough to fill the channel and overtop the banks.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2009/5144/pdf/sir2009-5144_mulvihil_bankfull_2revised508.pdf|title=Bankfull Discharge and Channel Characteristics of Streams in New York State (Scientific Investigations Report 2009–5144)|last=Mulvihill|first=Christiane|publisher=U.S. Geological Survey}}</ref>
thumb|Diagram of a river's left and right banks The descriptive terms '''left bank''' and '''right bank''' refer to the perspective of an observer looking downstream; a well-known example of this being the southern left bank and the northern right bank of the river Seine defining parts of Paris. The shoreline of ponds, swamps, estuaries, reservoirs, or lakes are also of interest in limnology and are sometimes referred to as banks. The grade of all these banks or shorelines can vary from vertical to a shallow slope.
In freshwater ecology, banks are of interest as the location of riparian habitats. Riparian zones occur along upland and lowland river and stream beds. The ecology around and depending on a marsh, swamp, slough, or estuary, sometimes called a bank, is likewise studied in freshwater ecology.
Banks are also of interest in navigation, where the term can refer either to a barrier island or a submerged plateau,<ref name="Bucksch1997">{{cite book|author=Herbert Bucksch|title=Dictionary Geotechnical Engineering: English German|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=te9FMHjOR4oC|year=1997|publisher=Springer DE|isbn=978-3-540-58164-2|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=te9FMHjOR4oC&pg=PA47 47]}}</ref> such as an ocean bank. A barrier island is a long narrow island composed of sand and forming a barrier between an island lagoon or sound and the ocean. A submerged plateau is a relatively flat topped elevation of the sea floor at shallow depth — generally less than {{convert|200|m|ft}} — typically on the continental shelf or near an island.
==See also== * Coast * Embankment (earthworks) * Levee
==References== {{reflist|30em}} {{Wiktionary pipe|bank#Etymology 2|bank}}
Category:Fluvial landforms Category:Freshwater ecology Category:Geomorphology Category:Hydrology Category:Limnology Category:Riparian zone Category:Rivers Category:Water and the environment Category:Water streams