This document summarizes key concepts from Chapter 2 of Edward J. Hickin's book "River Hydraulics and Channel Form". It discusses why rigid-boundary models are useful for understanding river behavior, even though real rivers erode and deposit sediment. It also introduces concepts like the energy equation, specific energy, critical flow, the Froude number, subcritical and supercritical flow, and energy losses. Key properties of water like viscosity and its temperature dependence are reviewed. Streamlines, streamtubes, steady and unsteady flow are defined.