Maybe someone can phrase it better.

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Note added at 1 hr (2013-05-09 17:44:55 GMT)
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Silt has raised river bed.
http://councilportal.cumbria.gov.uk/Data/County Council Loca...

This looks like an embanked river to me.

see
http://itis.volta.alessandria.it/progetti/scrivia/fiume_pens...
the river is contained here within raised embankments or levees.

vedi anche
Mississippi (fiume) - Wikipedia
it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_(fiume)‎Translate this page
Il Mississippi è un fiume dell'America settentrionale che attraversa la parte centrale degli Stati Uniti. ... si verificano nel basso corso, dove appunto il fiume è pensile, lasciano ai lati .... Monitoring the Water Quality of the Nation's Large Rivers.

Fiume in “Enciclopedia dei ragazzi” – Treccani
www.treccani.it › Enciclopedia‎Translate this page
fiume. Dalla sorgente alla foce, una grande risorsa per l'uomo. La vita di un ... se le bocche sono due o più, viene detta a delta (come il Po, il Nilo, il Mississippi). ... il letto del fiume, si alzano ancora gli argini... finché il fiume diventa 'pensile', ...

Levee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levee‎

A levee, levée (/ˈlɛviː/; French: [ləˈve]), dike (or dyke), embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels. It is usually earthen and often parallel to the course of a river in its floodplain or along low-lying coastlines.[1]

The name derives from the trait of the levee's ridges being raised higher than both the ... and because silt deposits raise the level of riverbeds, planning and auxiliary ... The Mississippi levee system represents one of the largest such systems ...

The Mississippi levee system represents one of the largest such systems found anywhere in the world. It comprises over 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of levees ...
Etymology - Artificial levees - Natural levees - Levee failures and breaches

Lower Mississippi River - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
www.fws.gov/southeast/pubs/facts/lmfcon.pdf‎
Lower Mississippi River leveed floodplain. □ Restore and enhance aquatic habitat in the Lower Mississippi. River leveed floodplain and tributaries. □ Increase ...



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Note added at 5 days (2013-05-14 19:46:14 GMT)
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Just for curiosity's sake I gogled "hanging river" and found several ghits, most of them in quotes, referring to China's yellow river.

see for example

Disaster and Human History: Case Studies in Nature, Society and ... - Page 243 - Google Books Result
books.google.it/books?isbn=0786436557
Benjamin Reilly - 2009 - Nature
Fifty years of holding the Mississippi in a narrow course had produced a “hanging river;” indeed, John McPhee has likened the modern Mississippi to a “large ...

Is the Lower Yellow River Sustainable?
www.soue.org.uk/souenews/issue4/yellowriver.html‎
This phenomenon is often referred to as the "hanging river". At Kaifeng and Xinxiang, the riverbed is respectively 13 and 20 m higher than street level. Worse still ...

When The Rivers Run Dry: What Happens When Our Water Runs Out? - Google Books Result
books.google.it/books?isbn=1448126541
Fred Pearce - 2012 - Nature
The 'hanging river' was created. It was a point of no return. From that time on, the dykes had to be raised higher to keep the river in. The task of holding back the ...

Survey of Atlantis - The Golden Age Project
www.goldenageproject.org.uk/survey.php‎
The identification by O'Brien of the substantial ancient dry or hanging river bed on the cliff ... In particular, migrations from Africa to the America's from 60,000 BC.

Environmental destruction in a booming China
www.isg-fi.org.uk › Socialist Outlook › SO/09 - Spring 2006‎
In the past, the scene of the so called 'hanging river' only appeared along the Huanghe, but now it is spreading along ... Latin America - A beacon for the Left?



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Note added at 5 days (2013-05-14 19:50:37 GMT)
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ScienceDirect.com - Developments in Earth Surface Processes - Italy
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0928202597800132
May 14, 2007 – 12.7. a) Subsidence of the Po delta, 1900-1957. ..... These so-called "hanging" river beds present serious dangers during flood discharge, ...