Effect of large flood in 2012 on river planform change in the Inner Mongolia reaches of the Yellow River

In 2012 the Yellow River Upper Reaches experienced the largest discharge flood since 1980s, which had significant effect on river planform of the Inner Mongolia river segment. This paper has analyzed feature of the flood and river planform change of Bayagaole similar to Toudaoguai reached by the use of satellite images, flow and sediment data and cross-sectional data. The results show that the flood in 2012 is characteristic of long duration, large flood volume and low sediment concentration; wandering river segments had no clear change in river regime, but transitional and meandering river segments were smoothened by cut-off.