AbstractFeedback mechanisms, which operate upstream through drawdown and backwater effects and downstream through sediment discharge are responsible for channel evolution. By combining these mechanisms with channel processes it euables a dynamic process‐response model to be developed to simulate the initial evolution of straight gravel‐bed channels.When erosion commences on a land surface, sediment entrained in the headwater reach by hydraulic action is selectively transported, deposited and reworked. This produces a damped oscillation between degradation and aggradation as the channel and valley respond to spatial and temporal variations in sediment calibre and hydraulic conditions. The initial cut and fill phases are responsible for valley incision and floodplain development while secondary and subsequent activity can produce river terraces.Eventually sediment entrainment in the headwaters declines as slopes are reduced. Subsequent channel evolution is relatively insignificant because it is dependent on local weathering activity producing material that can be transported on declining slopes. Therefore landforms produced during the initial phase of development, when local weathering was non‐limiting, dominate the land