资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

The growth and evolution of drainage networks are controlled by erosional and depositional processes forced by climate and tectonics operating on the landscape. By analyzing the data from 137 natural basins across the United States and an ensemble of synthetic terrains generated by a numerical landscape evolution model, we observed a power law relationship between the characteristic length (the length scale at which the timescales of diffusive and advective transports are equal) and drainage density (total channel length divided by drainage area) with two scaling regimes. The observed regimes exhibit significantly different characteristics in terms of intrabasin (i.e., the interaction between channels and hillslopes) and interbasin (i.e., the interaction between adjacent basins) competitions. Our findings reveal the relationship between drainage density and basic geomorphic and topologic characteristics, which encapsulate the advective and diffusive transport processes acting on the landscape.

Plain Language Summary We studied the connection between the basic geomorphic and topologic characteristics eristics of the landscape (i.e., parameters which describe advective and diffusive processes) and the formation of valleys in 137 natural basins across the United States and an ensemble of synthetic terrains generated by numerical landscape evolution model. We revealed a strong power law relationship between the characteristic length and drainage density with two scaling regimes. These results further advance our understanding of the formation of branching channel networks and help to enhance the predictive capabilities of landscape evolution models under changing external forcings.