An official website of the United States government
Abstract Features of landscape morphology—including slope, curvature, and drainage dissection—are important controls on runoff generation in upland landscapes. Over long timescales, runoff plays an essential role in shaping these same features through surface erosion. This feedback between erosion and runoff generation suggests that modeling long‐term landscape evolution together with dynamic runoff generation could provide insight into hydrological function. Here we examine the emergence of variable source area runoff generation in a new coupled hydro‐geomorphic model that accounts for water balance partitioning between surface flow, subsurface flow, and evapotranspiration as landscapes evolve over millions of years. We derive a minimal set of dimensionless numbers that provide insight into how hydrologic and geomorphic parameters together affect landscapes. Across the parameter space we investigated, model results collapsed to a single inverse relationship between the dimensionless relief and the ratio of catchment quickflow to discharge. Furthermore, we found an inverse relationship between the Hillslope number, which describes topographic relief relative to aquifer thickness, and the proportion of the landscape that was variably saturated. While the model generally produces fluvial topography visually similar to simpler landscape evolution models, certain parameter combinations produce wide valley bottom wetlands and non‐dendritic, trellis‐like drainage networks, which may reflect real conditions in some landscapes where aquifer gradients become decoupled from topography. With these results, we demonstrate the power of hydro‐geomorphic models for generating new insights into hydrological processes, and also suggest that subsurface hydrology may be integral for modeling aspects of long‐term landscape evolution.
more »
« less
Signatures of Varying Climate on Geomorphic and Topologic Characteristics of Channel Networks
Abstract Channel networks are important landscape features that transport water, sediment, and nutrients. Their emergence and evolution are controlled by the competition between hillslope and fluvial processes on landscapes. Investigating the geomorphic and topologic properties of these networks is crucial for quantifying the roles of processes in creating distinct patterns of channel networks and developing models to predict the network dynamics under changing environment. Here, we study the response of landscapes to changing climatic forcing via numerical‐modeling and the topographic analysis of natural landscapes. We use a physically‐based numerical landscape evolution model to investigate the channel network structure for varying hillslope and fluvial processes represented by different magnitudes of soil transport () and fluvial incision () coefficients. We show that landscapes with the same Péclet number (defined as the ratio of the timescales of advective (fluvial) to diffusive (hillslope) processes) and thus the same characteristic length scale may exhibit different geomorphic and topologic characteristics. Specifically, increasingDandK(mimicking humid conditions) or decreasingDandK(mimicking dry conditions), while keeping the same Péclet number, results in distinct branching structures. These changes lead to an exponential decrease in relief under humid conditions and an increase under dry conditions. For smaller and combinations, higher number of branching channels is observed, whereas for larger and combinations, higher number of side‐branching channels is obtained. These results align with topographic analysis of natural landscapes, suggesting that varying climatic conditions imprint distinct signatures on the branching structure of channel networks.
more »
« less
- PAR ID:
- 10590560
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.1029
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Water Resources Research
- Volume:
- 61
- Issue:
- 4
- ISSN:
- 0043-1397
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract. The planform geometry of branching drainage networks controls the topography of landscapes and their geomorphic, hydrologic, and ecologic functionality. The complexity of networks' geometry shows significant variability, from simple, straight channels that flow along the regional topographic gradient to intricate, tortuous flow patterns. This variability in complexity presents an enigma, as models show that it emerges independently of any heterogeneity in the environmental conditions. We propose to quantify networks' complexity based on the distribution of lengthwise asymmetry between paired flow pathways that diverge from a divide and rejoin at a junction. Using the lengthwise asymmetry definition, we show that the channel concavity index, describing downstream changes in channel slope, has a primary control on the planform complexity of natural drainage networks. An analytic model and optimal channel network simulations employing an energy minimization principle reveal that landscapes with low concavity channels attain planform stability only with simple network geometry. In contrast, landscapes with high concavity channels can achieve planform stability with various configurations, displaying different degrees of network complexity, including extremely complex geometries. Consequently, landscapes with high concavity index channels can preserve the legacy of former environmental conditions, whereas landscapes with low concavity index channels reorganize in response to environmental changes, erasing the former conditions. Consistent with previous findings showing that channel concavity correlates with climate aridity, we find a significant empirical correlation between aridity and network complexity, suggesting a climatic signature embedded in the large-scale planform geometry of landscapes.more » « less
-
Abstract. Debris flows regularly traverse bedrock channels that dissect steep landscapes, but our understanding of bedrock erosion by debris flows and their impact on steepland morphology is still rudimentary. Quantitative models of steep bedrock channel networks are based on geomorphic transport laws designed to represent erosion by water-dominated flows. To quantify the impact of debris flow erosion on steep channel network form, it is first necessary to develop methods to estimate spatial variations in bulk debris flow properties (e.g., flow depth, velocity) throughout the channel network that can be integrated into landscape evolution models. Here, we propose and evaluate two methods to estimate spatial variations in bulk debris flow properties along the length of a channel profile. We incorporate both methods into a model designed to simulate the evolution of longitudinal channel profiles that evolve in response to debris flow and fluvial processes. To explore this model framework, we propose a general family of debris flow erosion laws where erosion rate is a function of debris flow depth and channel slope. Model results indicate that erosion by debris flows can explain the occurrence of a scaling break in the slope–area curve at low-drainage areas and that upper-network channel morphology may be useful for inferring catchment-averaged erosion rates in quasi-steady landscapes. Validating specific forms of a debris flow incision law, however, would require more detailed model–data comparisons in specific landscapes where input parameters and channel morphometry can be better constrained. Results improve our ability to interpret topographic signals within steep channel networks and identify observational targets critical for constraining a debris flow incision law.more » « less
-
Abstract The hydrologic dynamics and geomorphic evolution of watersheds are intimately coupled—runoff generation and water storage are controlled by topography and properties of the surface and subsurface, while also affecting the evolution of those properties over geologic time. However, the large disparity between their timescales has made it difficult to examine interdependent controls on emergent hydrogeomorphic properties, such as hillslope length, drainage density, and extent of surface saturation. In this study, we develop a new model coupling hydrology and landscape evolution to explore how runoff generation affects long‐term catchment evolution, and analyze numerical results using a nondimensional scaling framework. We focus on hydrologic processes dominating in humid climates where storm runoff primarily arises from shallow subsurface flow and from precipitation on saturated areas. The model solves hydraulic groundwater equations to predict the water‐table elevation given prescribed, constant groundwater recharge. Water in excess of the subsurface capacity for transport becomes overland flow, which generates shear stress on the surface and may detach and transport sediment. This affects the landscape form that in turn affects runoff generation. We show that (a) four dimensionless parameters describe the possible steady state landscapes that coevolve under steady recharge; (b) hillslope length increases with increasing transmissivity relative to the recharge rate; (c) three topographic metrics—steepness index, Laplacian curvature, and topographic index—together provide a basis for interpreting landscapes that have coevolved with runoff generated via shallow subsurface flow. Finally we discuss the possibilities and limitations for quantitative comparisons between the model results and real landscapes.more » « less
-
Abstract Steep landscapes evolve largely by debris flows, in addition to fluvial and hillslope processes. Abundant field observations document that debris flows incise valley bottoms and transport substantial sediment volumes, yet their contributions to steepland morphology remain uncertain. This has, in turn, limited the development of debris‐flow incision rate formulations that produce morphology consistent with natural landscapes. In many landscapes, including the San Gabriel Mountains (SGM), California, steady‐state fluvial channel longitudinal profiles are concave‐up and exhibit a power‐law relationship between channel slope and drainage area. At low drainage areas, however, valley slopes become nearly constant. These topographic forms result in a characteristically curved slope‐area signature in log‐log space. Here, we use a one‐dimensional landform evolution model that incorporates debris‐flow erosion to reproduce the relationship between this curved slope‐area signature and erosion rate in the SGM. Topographic analysis indicates that the drainage area at which steepland valleys transition to fluvial channels correlates with measured erosion rates in the SGM, and our model results reproduce these relationships. Further, the model only produces realistic valley profiles when parameters that dictate the relationship between debris‐flow erosion, valley‐bottom slope, and debris‐flow depth are within a narrow range. This result helps place constraints on the mathematical form of a debris‐flow incision law. Finally, modeled fluvial incision outpaces debris‐flow erosion at drainage areas less than those at which valleys morphologically transition from near‐invariant slopes to concave profiles. This result emphasizes the critical role of debris‐flow incision for setting steepland form, even as fluvial incision becomes the dominant incisional process.more » « less
