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Hydrodynamic description of the erosional development of drainage patterns
Author(s) -
Roth Giorgio,
Siccardi Franco,
Rosso Renzo
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/wr025i002p00319
Subject(s) - drainage , geology , drainage network , hydrology (agriculture) , sediment , sediment transport , geomorphology , momentum (technical analysis) , scale (ratio) , geotechnical engineering , physics , ecology , biology , finance , quantum mechanics , economics
The erosional development of drainage networks is analyzed by modeling two‐dimensional flow of water and sediment over a bare slope. Deterministic equations of mass and momentum conservation are coupled with random fluctuations of sediment pickup and transportation processes acting at the hydrodynamic scale. These fluctuations are then shown to be able to provide an active source of channelization at the hillslope scale. Controlled experiments are also carried out by simulation runs aimed at investigating model performance (1) to describe formation of natural drainage patterns, (2) to account for different factors (i.e., soil characteristics, hillslope geometry, and rainfall intensity) which control network formation and development, and (3) to reproduce differentiation of drainage patterns due to above factors.