Streamside

A geographic bank has four definitions and applications:

  1. Limnology: The shoreline of a pond, swamp, estuary, reservoir, or lake. The grade (slope) can vary from vertical to a shallow slope.
  2. Freshwater ecology: (1) The location of a riparian zone habitats: along the upland and lowland river and stream beds. (2) The ecology around and depending on a marsh, swamp, slough, or estuary.
  3. Fluvial: A riverbank or stream-bank: the terrain alongside the bed of a river, creek, or stream.
  4. Navigation:
    1. (barrier island) A long narrow island composed of sand and forming a barrier between an island lagoon or sound and the ocean.
    2. (submerged plateau) a relatively flat topped elevation of the sea floor at shallow depth (generally less than 200m), typically on the continental shelf or near an island.