The river terraces may occur at the same elevation on either side of the rivers in which case they are called paired terraces.

When a terrace is present only on one side of the stream and with none on the other side or one at quite a different elevation on the other side, the terraces are called unpaired terraces.

Why do such terraces result?

The terraces may result due to:

(i) receding water after a peak flow

(ii) change in hydrological regime due to climatic changes

(iii) tectonic uplift of land

(iv) sea level changes in case of rivers closer to the sea.