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Familiarize Yourself with the River
The LA River is a channelized river. Most of the river is lined with concrete along its sides and bottom.
Rectangular Channel
Trapezoidal Channel
Some areas of the river have a “soft bottom” where soil and plants form the bottom of the channel. Other areas have concrete walls forming a rectangular channel, often called a box channel, or a trapezoidal channel formed by levees. In leveed areas, the top of the levee is often used as an access road or recreational trail. The area outside of the river bank is called the “landside” and sometimes includes areas for habitat, recreation, maintenance, or other park amenities. Together the river channel and the landside area make up the river right-of-way. The outside edge of the right-of-way is typically called the fenceline.