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The Exner equation is solid-volume mass conservation: a downstream increase in sediment transport flux removes material and lowers the bed. The factor ${\varphi }_b$ converts bed-height change into solid-volume change. The saturation length equation models downstream adjustment of actual sediment transport to the equilibrium sediment flux. Grain acceleration and entrainment/deposition need a finite distance, so $q$ lags $q_{\mathrm{sat}}$. The last relation is an empirical transport law above the sediment entrainment threshold, with $\chi >0$ and normally $\gamma >0$; below threshold it must be interpreted with a positive part rather than raising negative excess stress to an arbitrary power. It is a constitutive closure, not a consequence of mass conservation.

Take the physical parameters $L_{\mathrm{sat}}>0$, ${\varphi }_b>0$, $\chi >0$ and $\gamma >0$. Linearize about a horizontal, uniformly transporting bed with $\Delta ={\tau }_0-{\tau }_{\mathrm{th},0}>0$ and $q_0={\varphi }_b\chi {\Delta }^{\gamma }$. Set $\lambda =\sigma -ikc$ and use the real parts ofThe locally planar approximation uses the small instantaneous bed slope to compute the inclined-bed sediment threshold. Since $\alpha ={\eta }_x+O({\eta }_x^3)$,A sinusoidal disturbance has both uphill and downhill slopes: the printed $0<\alpha \ll 1$ describes the uphill derivation, and its first-order continuation applies to both signs. The zero-slope reference is the one implicit in the printed decomposition with constant term ${\tau }_{\mathrm{th},0}$; a finite mean inclined bed would require a shifted base threshold.

Define $C=\chi \gamma {\Delta }^{\gamma -1}$. The linearized transport equations areThe linearization requires $|{\eta }_x|\ll 1$ and $|\hat{\tau }-{\hat{\tau }}_{\mathrm{th}}|\ll \Delta$.

A fluid-dynamical shear-response closure is missing from the printed question. The three sediment equations and local slope correction do not determine $\hat{\tau }$ from $\hat{\eta }$. Write the general bed shear response as $\hat{\tau }=\mathcal{T}(k)\hat{\eta }$. A frequently used scale-invariant closure for $k>0$ isHere $A$ is the component in phase with bed height and $B$ represents an upstream phase lead in bed shear stress. They require an independent flow model and can depend on $k$. Introducing them explicitly makes the linear stability analysis complete conditional on a specified flow response; it does not turn them into data supplied by the question. An example of this hydrodynamic closure is given in Fourrière, Claudin and Andreotti's bedform-instability analysis.

The saturation length measures downstream relaxation of a transported grain population toward its equilibrium sediment transport flux. The elementary steady relaxation law is $L_{\mathrm{sat}}{q}_x=q_{\mathrm{sat}}-q$; it introduces a phase lag between forcing and actual transport.