The channels may be classified into three types: primary, secondary, cross channels. The varying characteristics of these three help towards understanding the evolution of the modern Mekong. Similarly the two-fold classification of the islands reveals the relationship between island inundation characteristics and the annual monsoon flood cycle. The associated riparian vegetation ecotones include a rare and unusual seasonally-inundated forest. Spatial variations in lithology and structure, when combined with maps of river networks, reveals that the channel alignments locally reflect the geological factors that cause the regional topographical gradient. Fault-line constraints on the local slopes of the channel may induce backwater effects and consequent sedimentation patterns (alluvial overprints) or alternatively, steepening of the channels with concomitant reduction in sedimentation. These structural constraints, taken together, lead to the identification of a mixed bedrock-alluvial five-fold geomorphological zonation within the study area. The general absence of paleochannels, and terraces close to the modern river, indicates that the Mekong is laterally stable with a dominating channel that downcuts. Consequently, a flood surface of limited lateral extent constrains entire floods.