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It is necessary to improve our understanding of the exchange of dissolved constituents between surface and subsurface waters in river systems in order to better evaluate the fate of water‐borne contaminants and nutrients and their effects on water quality and aquatic ecosystems. Here we present a model that can predict hyporheic exchange at the bed‐form‐to‐reach scale using readily measurable system characteristics. The objective of this effort was to compare subsurface flow induced at scales ranging from very small scale bed forms up to much larger planform geomorphic features such as meanders. In order to compare exchange consistently over this range of scales, we employed a spectral scaling approach as the basis for a generalized analysis of topography‐induced stream‐subsurface exchange. The spectral model involves a first‐order approximation for local flow‐boundary interactions but is fully three …