Experiments were conducted in an 8 m long,40 cm wide,and 60 cm deep re-circulating flume with vegetated banks and gravel bed to study the effects of accelerating and decelerating flows on the flow structure.Significant dip phenomenon was observed in velocity profiles under decelerating flow and the velocity defect law was not suitable due to the effect of vegetated banks.Near the vegetated banks, the turbulence intensities illustrated convex distribution for both accelerating and decelerating flows. Application of quadrant analysis revealed that the effect of vegetated banks is important on the flow structure and the Reynolds stress distribution.Accelerating and decelerating flows did not show a significant difference on percentage of time occupied by each kind of turbulent event within bursting cycle,but affected the shape of joint probability distributions of turbulent intensities in the horizontal and vertical directions. Experiments were conducted in an 8 m long, 40 cm wide, and 60 cm deep re-circulating flume with vegetated banks and gravel bed to study the effects of accelerating and decelerating flows on the flow structure. Significant dip phenomenon was observed in velocity profiles under decelerating flow and the velocity of defect law was not suitable due to the effect of vegetated banks. Near the vegetated banks, the turbulence intensities of illustrated convex distribution for both accelerating and decelerating flows. Application of quadrant analysis revealed that the effect of vegetated banks is important on the flow structure and the Reynolds stress distribution. Accelerating and decelerating flows did not show a significant difference on percentage of time occupied by each kind of turbulent event within bursting cycle, but affected the shape of joint probability distributions of turbulent intensities in the horizontal and vertical directions.