<span>When a river overflows its banks, it deposits sediment over a broad, flat area of land on both sides of the river. This broad flat area is called a floodplain. Floodplains usually have </span><span>areas of higher elevation on both sides.</span>
Particularly distinctive of the climate are sclerophyll shrublands, called maquis in the Mediterranean Basin, chaparral in California, matorral in Chile, fynbos in South Africa, and mallee and kwongan shrublands in Australia
