Aggradation
![Schematic of sediment accumulation (aggradation) in a river channel. The sediment is brown. The river is flowing on bedrock in the upper image, but because sediment was deposited over time the riverbed has risen. This has caused the house to be buried in the lower image.](/Images/godic/202412/20/Aggradation3253.png")
Aggradation (or alluviation) is the term used in geology for the increase in land elevation, typically in a river system, due to the deposition of sediment. Aggradation occurs in areas in which the supply of sediment is greater than the amount of material that the system is able to transport. The mass balance between sediment being transported and sediment in the bed is described by the Exner equation.