DRAINAGE

• Basic Terminology
 Geomorphological zones within Fluvial systems:

• Erosional zone - the streams are actively down-cutting, removing

bedrock from the valley floor and from the valley sides via
downslope movement of material into the stream bed.

• Transfer zone - the gradient is

lower, streams and rivers are
not actively eroding, but nor
is this a site of deposition.

• Depositional zone- where sediment is deposited in the river

channels and on the floodplains of a fluvial system or on the
surface of an alluvial fan.
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 Components of Fluvial System
• Drainage basin: Basic unit for collection and distribution of
water and sediment. Between 2 water divide.
• Stream flow is ultimate end product of runoff generation.
✓ Water flow in rivers and streams
is normally confined to channels,
which are depressions or scours
in the land surface that contain
the flow.

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✓ Floodplain : The area of land between or beyond the channels
that receives water only when the river is in flood.

✓Geomorphic
Alluvial plain:
AProcesses
low-relief continental area where
sediment is accumulating, which may
include the floodplains of individual
rivers.
✓ Catchment Area (Drainage basin):
The area of ground that supplies
water to a river system.(collects
water)

✓ Watershed Area:
Slightly sloping area where
water is transported by rivers or
channels to larger water bodies
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 Stream Channel Geometry

✓ Cross sectional area (A) = Width (W) * Depth(D)

Stream discharge is the volume of water passing through a particular

cross-section in a unit of time. (Cubic meter/ sec )

Discharge (Q) = Cross Sectional Area (A)* Flow Velocity (V)

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 Flow Velocity
Flow velocity is governed by the balance between-
1. Driving forces:
a. gravity
b. channel gradient (Slope)
2. Resisting forces:
a. Viscosity: resistance of a fluid to a change in shape
b. friction with bed and banks

Fluid Viscosity
✓ A measure of the ability of fluids to flow.

✓ Fluids with low viscosity flow readily and fluids with high
viscosity flow sluggishly.
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 ✓ Increasing viscosity tends to suppress turbulence, thereby
slowing the rate at which particles settle through water.

✓ Decreased turbulence also reduces the ability of running water

to erode and entrain sediment.

Molecular Viscosity (μ)

• Resistance due to friction • It is the measure of
between individual water resistance of a substance
molecules as they collide and to change in shape, taking
slide past one another. place at finite speeds
during flow.
• It is affected by temperature and
suspended sediment
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 Laminar vs Turbulent Flow
• Distinguished based on flow velocity, fluid viscosity, and roughness of the bed.
Laminar Flow
• Can be visualized as a series of parallel
streamlines

• They never intertwine.

• Takes place only at very low fluid

velocities over smooth beds.

Turbulent Flow
• Due to increase in flow velocity , streamlines breaks up and becomes highly
distorted (intertwined).
• It moves as a series of constantly changing and deforming masses in which there
is sizable transport of fluid perpendicular to the mean direction of flow.
• Highly turbulent water masses are referred to as Eddies.
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Drainage
Classification of Stream
Antecedent Rivers: Ganga Is Older Than
Himalaya
• An antecedent stream is a stream that maintains its original course
and pattern despite the changes in underlying rock topography.
• Many Himalayan rivers are good examples of antecedent origin.
These rivers originated well before the Himalayan region was
uplifted.
• Therivers Indus, Brahmaputra, Sutlej, Kosi and Subansiri originated
on the Tibetan side and now traverse the existing mountain ranges,
cutting deep gorges.
• These rivers seem to have maintained their levels, while the mountain
barriers rose higher and higher.
• Uplift is countered by undercutting
A superposed stream is a stream that forms over horizontal beds that overlie folded and faulted rock
with varying resistance.

Having cut down through the horizontal beds, the stream retains its
course and pattern as it proceeds to erode the underlying rocks
despite their different character.
The stream erodes a gorge in the resistant bed and continues its flow as before.
A water gap is a gap that flowing water has carved through a mountain range or mountain ridge and that still
carries water today. Such gaps that no longer carry water currents are called wind gaps. Water gaps and wind
gaps often offer a practical route for road and rail transport to cross the mountain barrier.
Drainage Pattern
• Annular: A drainage pattern in which streams follow a roughly
circular or concentric path along a belt of weak rock,
resembling in plan a ringlike pattern.
The upper Jhelum River in the Vale of Kashmir receives
numerous tributaries from both the sides and thus forms
herringbone drainage pattern.
Revision Slides
 River Network Geometry
• Dendritic (tree-like, branching) network-
✓ They form in areas with
flat and uniform bedrock.

✓ Tributaries joining larger

streams at acute angle (less
than 90°).

• Radial network-
✓ Consequent streams radiate or
diverge outward, from a high
central area.

✓ When streams flows inward it is

called as Centripetal drainage
 River Network Geometry
• Parallel network- ✓ Streams are swift and
straight, with very few
tributaries, and all flow in
the same direction.

✓ Form where there is a

pronounced slope to the
surface
• Trellis network-
✓ Tributaries join at high angles,
often approaching right angles

✓ Trellis drainage develops in

folded topography
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 River Network Geometry
• Rectangular network- ✓ The tributary streams make
sharp bends and enter the
main stream at high angles.

✓ Found in regions that have

undergone faulting

• Deranged network-
✓ No coherent pattern to the rivers
and lakes.
✓ Forms from the disruption of a
pre-existing drainage pattern.

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 River Network Classification

Concordant Discordant
Patterns patterns • Concordant Drainage
patterns- it correlates to the
topology and geology of the
Consequent Antecedent
area.

Subsequent Superposed
• Discordant Drainage patterns-
Do not correlate to the
Resequent topology (surface relief
features) and geology of the
area.
Obsequent

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 Concordant Patterns

• Consequent channel is the consequence of the initial

topography and drainage; i.e. on a newly
exposed or created (tectonic) surface

• Subsequent rivers in structurally-controlled valleys that evolve

subsequent to the consequent drainage (e.g.
annular drainage in an eroded structural
dome)

• Resequent (renewed consequent) in the same direction and

usually parallel to the consequent drainage

• Obsequent opposite to the consequent drainage

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 Discordant Patterns
• Antecedent preceded but not defeated by tectonic,
e.g. a gorge eroded into a rising land mass.

• Superposed superimposed on underlying strata exposed by

denudation, thus often not controlled by
underlying structure because river course
established according to structure of overlying
strata.

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