Week 2 – Catchment and Stream Networks
Contents
Week 2 – Catchment and Stream Networks..........................................................................................1
Classifying River Basins (Global Distribution of catchments).............................................................1
Why do drainage network form?.......................................................................................................2
Drainage Density...............................................................................................................................3
Channel Initiation..........................................................................................................................4
Catchment variables
- Climate
o Precipitation
o Evaporation
Water supply to river
- Geology
o Vegetation
o Soils
o Land use
Sediment supply
Classifying River Basins (Global Distribution of catchments)
i) Internal/external drainage
ii) Lithology
iii) Climate
iv) Tectonics (active/passive plate margins)
According to Nyberg (2019), any basin can be classified in relation to structure and tectonics, internal
or external drainage, rock types and climate. The drainage system can be classified into two
categories, which are draining inland (endorheic) or draining to coast (exoheric/cryptorheic) . Some
rivers drain into the epicontinental seaway which are shallow and broad seaways. Deltas are
normally formed in wide shelf and epicontinental seaways.
Drainage basins can also be classified by tectonics settings. Foreland and forearcs are colliding active
plate margins. Catchments on a passive margin have very different characters compared to those on
colliding active plate margins. Majority of catchments occur at passive margin and intracratonic
areas. Catchments in intracratonic areas are internal draining. (endorheic). Small proportion of
catchments occur in foreland and forearc where frequent uplifts occur. Forearc catchments
dominates in sediment supply to the ocean. Hence, the tectonic settings are important to determine
the sediment supply to ocean.
Besides, river basins can also be classified by climate controls. Mid-latitude areas have less
precipitation. Therefore, the runoff is low. Bulk of runoff happens in the tropics where there is high
precipitation, which result in a high discharge. Wet areas that drive catchment processes tend to be
where we get wind system blowing moist air up mountain, causing orographic rainfall. (Easter edge
of AUS). Therefore, the active catchments in Australia are in the North(tropics) and East due to moist
winds. (wet areas)
- If surface is unconstrained, we tend to get dendritic drainage basin network
Why do drainage network form?
Drainage networks are formed to develop maximum efficiency of sediment movement and water
movement. Dendritic network is the most efficient way to move water and sediments down a slope.
The most efficient way to move sediments through catchment system is through lots of small/short
channels. This is because we can achieve maximum connectivity to the landscape. The most efficient
way to move water through the catchment system is through one big channel. This is because the
friction in the channel is minimised. A drainage network is a compromise or equilibrium state
between these two aims.
Drainage Density
Rounded and long
drainage networks.
(Low Drainage Densities)
High drainage density
catchment.
- Lots of streams
- Short distance from head to
catchment to (interflume).
-
Figure 1: Drainage vs Density (Walling & Kleo 1979)
- Precipitation intensity
- vegetation
- [ drainage density depends on catena system]
The higher the drainage density, the more stream you get and the smaller the size of each sub-
catchment is. A low drainage density catchment is very rounded and long. Drainage density is
determined by the erosion rate of the catchments. Erosion rates are controlled by runoffs, which is a
function of rainfall, and the resistance to erosion, which is determined by rock type and vegetation.
Drainage density depends on the intensity of precipitation and vegetation. When vegetation and soil
cover increases, infiltration rate will increase, which leads to a decrease in runoff intensity. Hence,
the erosion rate decreases and causes a decrease in drainage density. Besides, when vegetation and
soil cover increases, surface resistance increases. Hence, erosion rate decreases which causes
drainage density to decrease. (drainage density is determined by intensity of rainfall, not mean
annual rainfall) When mean annual rainfall is low, vegetation cover is very limited. Hence, intensity
of precipitation will have a huge impact on the drainage density due to the lack of vegetation cover.
As annual rainfall increases, vegetation cover increases, which might lead to a decrease in drainage
density. Drainage density will increase again once the intensity of precipitation exceeds the
resistance of vegetation cover. Hence, there is a non-linear relationship between precipitation and
drainage density.
High drainage density hillslopes have many river channels. This indicates that fluvial erosion
dominates this landscape. (advective > diffusive) (have high precipitation intensity and lower
vegeation cover)
Channel Initiation
i) Uplift
ii) Runoff
iii) Baselevel
There are two types of uplifts, which are orogeny and epeirogeny(continental) uplift. Plate tectonics
play an important role in uplifts. If there are no uplifts, there will be no drainage basins as all the
slopes will be eroded off as time passes.
The spacing of ridges and valleys is fundamentally controlled by competition between creep-like
sediment transport processes, which tend to smooth the landscape and fluvial processes, which
incise the landscape.
Channel initiation is controlled by infiltration-excess overland flow, saturation overland flow and
sub-surface seepage. Overland flow exerts a shear stress on slope, which when it exceeds surface
resistance causes sheetwash erosions which coalesces into rills and channels. Shear stress is a
function of depth, therefore, the deeper it is, the higher the shear stress.
