Quoted from: https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/60600505/AGNPS/Concepts/Doc/manual.pdf 

The Conservational Channel Evolution and Pollutant Transport System(CONCEPTS) is a computer model that simulates open-channel hydraulics, sediment transport, and channel morphology. CONCEPTS, version 1.0, incorporates unique advances on alluvial channel evolution made by scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agriculture Research Service, National Sedimentation Lab Laboratory (NSL) in Oxford, Mississippi. Presently, there are two versions of CONCEPTS available that consider different scales of stream systems:

(1) watershed-scale stream network, and.

(2) reach-scale stream corridor.

The overall objective of the ongoing work on CONCEPTS is to develop an integrated stream-riparian corridor model to be used in conjunction with watershed-scale analysis, for evaluating the long-term effectiveness of The overall objective of the ongoing work on CONCEPTS is to develop an integrated stream-riparian corridor model to be used in conjunction with watershed-scale analysis, for evaluating the long-term effectiveness of proposed corridor rehabilitation designs. This modeling capability is a critical need for hydraulic engineers, fluvial geomorphologists, landscape architects, and stream ecologists involved in stream rehabilitation projects. These projects are usually challenged by the lack of integrated design tools to evaluate the long-term stability of reconstructed stream corridors. This model is an integral component of the suite of modeling tools incorporated into the AGNPS98technology at NSL supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, natural resources Conservation Service (http://www.sedlab.olemiss.edulAGNPS.html).

Version 1.0 of CONCEPTS simulates unsteady, one-dimensional flow graded-sediment transport, and bank-erosion processes in stream corridors. It can predict the dynamic response of flow and sediment transport to instream hydraulic structures. It computes channel evolution by tracking bed changes and channel widening. Bank erosion accounts for basal scour and mass wasting of unstable cohesive banks. CONCEPTS simulates the transport of cohesive and cohesionless sediments, both in suspension and on the bed, and selectively by size classes. CONCEPTS includes channel-boundary roughness varying along a cross-section, for example, due to varying vegetation patterns.

CONCEPTS can be used to evaluate the efficiency of instream grade-control structures to reduce sediment yield and to stabilize streams.CONCEPTS can evaluate the location and sizing alternatives of grade-control structures.

CONCEPTS can be used to evaluate the design of specific stream corridor rehabilitation measures used for stream stability and habitat improvement.

CONCEPTS version 2.0, already under development, will incorporate the simulation of riparian buffers, vegetated streambanks, and the onset of channel meandering due to the deposition of alternate bars.