geomorphometry and landform mapping what is a landform abstract starting from a concept of the land surface its definition and subdivision from digital elevation models dems is considered high resolution dems from active remote sensing form a new basis for geomorphological work which is moving on from consideration of whether data are accurate enough to how the surface of interest can be defined from an overabundance of data discussion of the operational definition and delimitation of specific landforms of varying degrees of difficulty from craters to mountains is followed by the applicability of fuzzy boundaries scaling usually allometric is shown to be compatible with the scale specificity of many landforms this is exemplified by glacial cirques and drumlins classification of a whole land surface is more difficult than extraction of specific landforms from it well dissected fluvial landscapes pose great challenges for areal analyses these are tackled by the delimitation of homogeneous elementary forms and or land elements in which slope position is considered the boundaries are mainly breaks in gradient or aspect but may also be in some type of curvature breaks in altitude are rare elementary forms or land elements are grouped together into functional regions landforms such as hill sheds it may often be useful to recognise fuzziness of membership or core and periphery of a surface object plains and etched or scoured surfaces defy most of these approaches and general geomorphometry remains the most widely applicable technique it has been applied mainly within arbitrary areas and to some extent to drainage basins but more experimentation with mountain ranges and other landforms or landform regions is needed geomorphological mapping is becoming more specialised and its legends are being simplified its incorporation into geographical information systems gis has required greater precision with definitions and the separation of thematic layers so that it is converging with specific geomorphometry and becoming more flexible and more applicable with a broader range of visualisation techniques

differential recovery from the effects of a 100 year storm significance of long term hillslope channel coupling howgill fells northwest england a 100 year storm that occurred in 1982 caused major geomorphic changes in the main valleys of the northern howgill fells northwest england those changes which were documented at that time involved extensive hillslope gully erosion alluvial fan sedimentation and substantial sediment input to the stream systems the streams channels which had hitherto been dominantly single thread relatively stable channels responded in many reaches by switching to wide shallow unstable locally braided channels over the 20 years since the event there has been a partial recovery to channel geometries similar to the pre flood conditions however the degree of recovery contrasts between two neighbouring valleys bowderdale and langdale the channel of bowderdale beck has largely recovered flood sedimentation zones have largely stabilised and new single thread channels have cut through most of the former braided reaches in some places channel widths remain higher than the pre flood values and locally recovery has been modified by a lagged complex response in langdale recovery is only partial with many reaches demonstrating sustained instability over the 20 year post flood period furthermore the overall spatial patterns suggest some reach to reach transfer of coarse sediment shifting zones of instability downstream the contrasts between the two valleys appear to relate to different hillslope to channel coupling characteristics themselves inherited from late pleistocene conditions these contrasts are also evident in the longer term post 1949 history of channel change and stability in these two streams indicative of the higher intrinsic instability of the langdale system

spatial distribution of sediment storage types and quantification of valley fill deposits in an alpine basin reintal bavarian alps germany spatial patterns of sediment storage types and associated volumes using a novel approach for quantifying valley fill deposits are presented for a small alpine catchment 17 km 2 in the bavarian alps the different sediment storage types were analysed with respect to geomorphic coupling and sediment flux activity the dominant landforms in the valley in terms of surface area were found to be talus slopes sheets and cones followed by rockfall deposits and alluvial fans and plains more than two thirds of the talus slopes are relict landforms completely decoupled from the geomorphic system notable sediment transport is limited to avalanche tracks debris flows and along floodplains sediment volumes were calculated using a combination of polynomial functions of cross sections seismic refraction and gis modelling a total of 66 seismic refraction profiles were carried out throughout the valley for a more precise determination of sediment thicknesses and to check the bedrock data generated from geomorphometric analysis we calculated the overall sediment volume of the valley fill deposits to be 0 07 km 3 this corresponds to a mean sediment thickness of 23 3 m the seismic refraction data showed that large floodplains and sedimentation areas which have been developed through damming effects from large rockfalls are in general characterised by shallow sediment thicknesses 20 m by contrast the thickness of several talus slopes is more than twice as much for some locations e g narrow sections of valley the polynomial generated cross sections resulted in overestimations of up to one order of magnitude whereas in sections with a moderate valley shape the modelled cross sections are in good accordance with the obtained seismic data for the quantification of valley fill deposits a combined application of bedrock data derived from polynomials and geophysical prospecting is highly recommended d 2003 elsevier b v all rights reserved

buffers barriers and blankets the dis connectivity of catchment scale sediment cascades abstract catchment configuration and the nature of connectivity within and between landscape compartments affect the operation of sediment cascades and geomorphic responses to disturbance events of differing magnitude and frequency this paper introduces the concept of landform impediments termed buffers barriers and blankets that impede sediment conveyance by limiting the connectivity between landscape compartments buffers restrict sediment delivery to channels barriers inhibit sediment movement along channels and blankets drape channel or floodplain surfaces affecting the accessibility of sediment to entrainment these features operate as a series of switches which turn on off processes of sediment delivery determining the effective catchment area at any given time using previously documented examples the role of these features in affecting the operation of sediment cascades in a low relief passive landscape setting such as the australian landmass is contrasted to examples from high relief uplifting settings in new zealand the australian examples are further explored by examining how changes to landscape connectivity brought about by human disturbance since european settlement have impacted upon landscape sensitivity and prospects for river recovery this approach to analysis of impediments to sediment conveyance is generic and can be applied in any environmental setting

geomorphic imprint of landslides on alpine river systems southwest new zealand an inventory of 846 mass movements mainly landslides in two alpine regions of southwest new zealand was created to explore the geomorphic impacts of slope failure processes on river channels and valley floors in total 213 i e 27 per cent of the slope failures descended to valley floors affecting the geomorphology of trunk channels catchment area ac 10 km2 and valley floors in recurring patterns a nominal classification system is introduced for characterizing a the physical contact nature between landslides and river channels and b the resulting geomorphic consequences for drainage although landslide area a is useful for estimating the length of channel directly impacted by debris it does not necessarily predict the direction of fluvial response or type of impact dominant persistent geomorphic imprints of bedrock landslides include channel occlusions and landslide dams in south westland and fiordland respectively differences in size distribution and geomorphic effects on river systems between the two study regions are attributed to bedrock geology tectonics and sediment flux although south westland rivers are more frequently affected by landslides disrupting long term effects such as blockage are more persistent in fiordland copyright 2005 john wiley sons ltd

helium radon and manganese at the tag and snakepit hydrothermal vent fields 26 and 23 n mid atlantic ridge abstract 3 he 4 he and 222 rn have been measured in samples of vent fluids from the tag and snakepit hydrothermal vent fields and in samples from the neutrally buoyant plume at tag the hydrothermal end member 3 he 4 he at tag normalised to the ratio in air is r r a 7 5 0 9 222 rn 187 dpm kg 1 and 226 ra 13 5 0 4 dpm kg 1 at snakepit r r a 7 86 1 85 222 rn 82 dpm kg 1 and 226 ra 10 3 0 2 dpm kg 1 helium isotope tracer systematics have been described which allow hydrothermal end member properties to be estimated from plume data or non conservative behaviour in the buoyant plume to be identified comparison of plume mn concentrations and he isotope data shows that mn behaves conservatively in the plume system over the time scale considered in contrast 222 rn is highly non conservative and there is a large 222 rn excess in the neutrally buoyant plume the hydrothermal end member accounts for less than 2 5 of the excess 222 rn enrichment at the top of the buoyant plume attributed to entrainment of 222 rn enriched fluids during buoyant plume rise 222 rn 3 he ages of the tag plume give values of around 1 2 days close to the vent field and up to 10 days in adjacent waters 222 rn mn ages are similar except for a region of anomalous water at the level of neutral buoyancy which is enriched in 222 rn and si but not 3 he and mn and which may be derived from the walls of the axial valley at the depth of the neutrally buoyant plume

quantifying sediment storage in a high alpine valley turtmanntal switzerland the determination of sediment storage is a critical parameter in sediment budget analyses but in many sediment budget studies the quantification of magnitude and time scale of sediment storage is still the weakest part and often relies on crude estimations only especially in large drainage basins 100 km2 we present a new approach to storage quantification in a meso scale alpine catchment of the swiss alps turtmann valley 110 km2 the quantification of depositional volumes was performed by combining geophysical surveys and geographic information system gis modelling techniques mean thickness values of each landform type calculated from these data was used to estimate the sediment volume in the hanging valleys and the trough slopes sediment volume of the remaining subsystems was determined by modelling an assumed parabolic bedrock surface using digital elevation model dem data a total sediment volume of 781 3 106 1005 7 106 m3 is deposited in the turtmann valley over 60 of this volume is stored in the 13 hanging valleys moraine landforms contain over 60 of the deposits in the hanging valleys followed by sediment stored on slopes 20 and rock glaciers 15 for the first time a detailed quantification of different storage types was achieved in a catchment of this size sediment volumes have been used to calculate mean denudation rates for the different processes ranging from 0 1 to 2 6 mm a based on a time span of 10 ka as the quantification approach includes a number of assumptions and various sources of error the values given represent the order of magnitude of sediment storage that has to be expected in a catchment of this size copyright 2009 john wiley sons ltd

geomorphic coupling and sediment connectivity in an alpine catchment exploring sediment cascades using graph theory through their relevance for sediment budgets and the sensitivity of geomorphic systems geomorphic coupling and sediment connectivity represent important topics in geomorphology since the introduction of the systems perspective to physical geography by chorley and kennedy 1971 a catchment has been perceived as consisting of landscape elements e g landforms subcatchments that are coupled by geomorphic processes through sediment transport in this study we present a novel application of mathematical graph theory to explore the network structure of coarse sediment pathways in a central alpine catchment numerical simulation models for rockfall debris flows and hillslope and channel fluvial processes are used to establish a spatially explicit graph model of sediment sources pathways and sinks the raster cells of a digital elevation model form the nodes of this graph and simulated sediment trajectories represent the corresponding edges model results are validated by visual comparison with the field situation and aerial photos the interaction of sediment pathways i e where the deposits of a geomorphic process form the sources of another process forms sediment cascades represented by paths a succession of edges in the graph model we show how this graph can be used to explore upslope contributing area and downslope source to sink functional connectivity by analysing its nodes edges and paths the analysis of the spatial distribution composition and frequency of sediment cascades yields information on the relative importance of geomorphic processes and their interaction however regardless of their transport capacity in the study area the analysis stresses the importance of mass movements and their interaction e g the linkage of large rockfall source areas to debris flows that potentially enter the channel network moreover it is shown that only a small percentage of the study area is coupled to the channel network which itself is longitudinally disconnected by natural and anthropogenic barriers besides the case study we discuss the methodological framework and alternatives for node and edge representations of graph models in geomorphology we conclude that graph theory provides an excellent methodological framework for the analysis of geomorphic systems especially for the exploration of quantitative approaches towards sediment connectivity

catchment scale dis connectivity in sediment flux in the upper hunter catchment new south wales australia abstract dis connectivity within and between landscape compartments affects the extent and rate of transfer of energy and matter through catchments various landforms may impede sediment conveyance in a river system whether laterally to the channel termed buffers or longitudinally along the channel itself termed barriers a generic approach to analysis of landscape dis connectivity using slope threshold analysis in gis tied to air photograph interpretation and field mapping of buffers and barriers is tested in the upper hunter catchment australia under simulated conditions effective catchment area which is a measure of the proportion of a catchment that has the potential to contribute sediment to the channel network varies from 73 to just 3 of the total catchment area for differing subcatchments in the upper hunter this variability can be explained by the spatial distribution and assemblage of buffers and barriers in each subcatchment multiple forms of disconnectivity are evident in some subcatchments such that when one buffer or barrier is breached other features still impede sediment transfer within the system the importance of the position of buffers and barriers within any given subcatchment is emphasised spatial variability in valley width exerts a critical control on catchment connectivity with more efficient sediment conveyance in narrow valleys relative to wider valleys characterised by piedmonts terraces fans and extensive floodplains in which conveyance is impeded this variability reflects the landscape history and geological setting of each subcatchment the framework developed in this paper can be used to assess the impact of natural or human induced buffers and barriers on catchment scale sediment flux in any landscape setting providing a physical template atop which other biogeochemical fluxes could be examined

the sediment delivery problem abstract the linking of on site rates of erosion and soil loss within a drainage basin to the sediment yield at the basin outlet and improved knowledge and representation of the associated processes of sediment delivery represent a major research need within the field of erosion and sedimentation and also an important scale problem in drainage basin studies this paper reviews the limitations of the sediment delivery ratio concept by considering the problems of temporal and spatial lumping and its blackbox nature some recent advances in our understanding of the sediment delivery system and its modelling are described and the lack of detailed empirical investigations is highlighted the significance of recent concern for the role of sediments in the transport of nutrients and contaminants to sediment delivery studies is introduced and the need for further work in this field is emphasised

significance of rockfall magnitude and carbonate dissolution for rock slope erosion and geomorphic work on alpine limestone cliffs reintal german alps abstract the proportional contribution of low mid and high magnitude rock slope failure orchestrates rock slope erosion and rockfall hazard in alpine and arctic environments in this study we compare sediment yield geomorphic work and rock wall retreat of carbonate dissolution and five different magnitudes of rock slope failure in the steep alpine reintal trough valley we combine a four year rockfall collector measurement of 140 mg of fragmental rockfall a 20th century scientific record of mid magnitude rockfall as well as carbon dating and a historical record of 15th to 19th century rock avalanche activity the total rockfall sediment yield of 8 6 3 4 10 3 m 3 year 1 is dominated by high magnitude rock avalanches 10 6 m 3 62 and low magnitude debris falls 3 18 while mid magnitude boulder block and cliff falls are less important the magnitude signal contradicts studies on siliceous rocks where mid magnitude rockfall dominates rock slope erosion the geomorphic work released in the 17 3 km 2 large catchment by rockfalls 123 47 w km 2 i e 0 38 0 15 mm year 1 and solute transport 34 18 w km 2 i e 0 05 0 03 mm year 1 exceeds previously published alpine values by one to multiple orders of magnitude we hypothesise that the magnitude signal of enhanced small and high magnitude rockfall is characteristic for carbonate cliffs the elevated porosity related susceptibility to fragmentation and persistent carbonate dissolution along potential sliding planes are likely to favour both low and high magnitude rock slope failures here we show how the magnitude signal of rock slope failure influences rock wall retreat geomorphic work rockfall deposition and sediment connectivity

chronology of the last glacial cycle in the european alps chronological data for glacier advances in the european alps between the last interglacial eemian and the holocene are summarised 115 to 11 ka during this time glaciers were most extensive extending tens of kilometres out onto the forelands between 30 and 18 ka that is synchronous with the global ice volume maximum of marine isotope stage mis 2 evidence for ice expanding to just past the mountain front for an earlier major glacier advance comes from swiss sites where advances have been luminescence dated to mis 5d 100 ka and mis 4 70 ka up to now no such evidence has been found in the eastern alps by 18 ka more than 80 of the late wurmian ice volume had gone subsequently glaciers readvanced reaching into the upper reaches of the main valleys during the lateglacial gschnitz stadial which likely occurred around 17 ka with final moraine stabilisation no later than 15 4 ka the link of the egesen stadial with the younger dryas climate deterioration is supported by exposure ages from four sites as well as minimum limiting radiocarbon dates from bogs within former glacier tongue areas key questions on the spatial and temporal variability of ice extents throughout the last glacial cycle have yet to be answered copyright 2008 john wiley sons ltd

particle transport over rough hillslope surfaces by dry ravel experiments and simulations with implications for nonlocal sediment flux 1 past studies of hillslope evolution have typically assumed that soil creep processes are governed by a linear relationship between local hillslope angle and transport distance the assumption of linear diffusion has fallen out of favor because when coupled with an expression of mass continuity it yields unrealistic hillslope profiles as a consequence a better understanding of the mechanics of sediment transport is needed here we report results from a series of flume experiments performed to investigate sediment transport by dry ravel a common soil creep process in arid and semiarid environments we find that at gentle slopes transport distances follow distributions characteristic of local transport as gradients steepen a fraction of the particles begins to exhibit nonlocal transport and that fraction increases rapidly with slope a stochastic discrete element model that couples an effective friction term with a shock term reproduces the results from the flume experiments suggesting that it can be used to explore the nature of particle transport on rough surfaces the model predicts that exponential distributions of transport distances on gentle slopes evolve into quasi uniform distributions on steep slopes and the transition occurs as slopes approach the angle of repose our results support previous findings that the angle of repose represents a threshold between friction and inertial regimes in addition we propose that the angle of repose represents a fuzzy boundary between local and nonlocal transport

initiation conditions for debris flows generated by runoff at chalk cliffs central colorado abstract we have monitored initiation conditions for six debris flows between may 2004 and july 2006 in a 0 3 km 2 drainage basin at chalk cliffs a band of hydrothermally altered quartz monzonite in central colorado debris flows were initiated by water runoff from colluvium and bedrock that entrained sediment from rills and channels with slopes ranging from about 14 to 45 the availability of channel material is essentially unlimited because of thick channel fill and refilling following debris flows by rock fall and dry ravel processes rainfall exceeding i 6 61 d 0 77 where i is rainfall intensity mm h and d is duration h was required for the initiation of debris flows in the drainage basin the approximate minimum runoff discharge from the surface of bedrock required to initiate debris flows in the channels was 0 15 m 3 s colluvium in the basin was unsaturated immediately prior to antecedent and during debris flows antecedent volumetric moisture levels in colluvium at depths of 1 cm and 29 cm ranged from 4 9 and 4 7 respectively during debris flows peak moisture levels in colluvium at depths of 1 cm and 29 cm ranged from 10 20 and 4 12 respectively channel sediment at a depth of 45 cm was unsaturated before and during debris flows antecedent moisture ranged from 20 22 and peak moisture ranged from 24 38 although we have no measurements from shallow rill or channel sediment we infer that it was unsaturated before debris flows and saturated by surface water runoff during debris flows our results allow us to make the following general statements with regard to debris flows generated by runoff in semi arid to arid mountainous regions 1 high antecedent moisture levels in hillslope and channel sediment are not required for the initiation of debris flows by runoff 2 locations of entrainment of sediment by successive runoff events can vary within a basin as a function of variations in the thickness of existing channel fill and the rate of replenishment of channel fill by rock fall and dry ravel processes following debris flows and 3 rainfall and simulated surface water discharge thresholds can be useful in understanding and predicting debris flows generated by runoff and sediment entrainment

synchronization and scale in geomorphic systems abstract geomorphic systems consist of coupled subsystems with traits of small world networks swn characterized by tightly connected clusters of components with fewer connections between the clusters geomorphic systems based on scale hierarchies often exhibit a connected caveman small world network ccswn structure swns are efficient for linking a large number of components with a relatively small number of links but effects of ccswn structure on synchronization and scale linkage have not been examined synchronization is analyzed via graph theory and applied to 1 relationships among three levels of form process interaction in stream channels 2 hierarchical relationships of weathering systems at scales from weathering profiles to landscapes and 3 interactions in fluviokarst systems at the scale of flow processes and of landscape evolution relationships among system components are represented as simple unweighted graphs the largest eigenvalue of the adjacency matrix spectral radius reflects the critical coupling strength required to synchronize the system the second smallest eigenvalue of the laplacian of the adjacency matrix algebraic connectivity is a measure of the synchronizability in all examples both are much less than the maximum for networks of the same number of nodes the sparseness of the networks is the major contributor to the low synchronization but the specific pattern of connections wiring is also significant where ccswn structures arise naturally they help explain how geomorphic effects are transmitted between disparate scales in the absence of obvious scale linkage where ccswns are an option for representation of geomorphic systems in models and data structures they will not improve scale linkage despite the efficiency of swns in other respects methods developed here can be applied to evaluating alternative spatial data structures or mapping strategies which either increase synchronization supporting a lumping or aggregation approach or decrease synchronization indicating disaggregation or splitting into scale hierarchies

comparison of conceptual landscape metrics to define hillslope scale sediment delivery ratio abstract the aim of this study was to evaluate four metrics to define the spatially variable regionalised hillslope sediment delivery ratio hsdr a catchment model that accounted for gully and streambank erosion and floodplain deposition was used to isolate the effects of hillslope gross erosion and hillslope delivery from other landscape processes the analysis was carried out at the subcatchment 40 km 2 and the cell scale 400 m 2 in the avon richardson catchment 3300 km 2 south east australia the four landscape metrics selected for the study were based on sediment travel time sediment transport capacity flux connectivity and residence time model configurations with spatially constant or regionalised hsdr were calibrated against sediment yield measured at five gauging stations the impact of using regionalised hsdr was evaluated in terms of improved model performance against measured sediment yields in a nested monitoring network the complexity and data requirements of the metric and the resulting spatial relationship between hillslope erosion and landscape factors in the catchment and along hillslope transects the introduction of a regionalised hsdr generally improved model predictions of specific sediment yields at the subcatchment scale increasing model efficiency from 0 48 to 0 6 in the best cases however the introduction of regionalised hsdr metrics at the cell scale did not improve model performance the flux connectivity was the most promising metric because it showed the largest improvement in predicting specific sediment yields was easy to implement was scale independent and its formulation was consistent with sedimentological connectivity concepts these properties make the flux connectivity metric preferable for applications to catchments where climatic conditions can be considered homogeneous i e in small medium sized basins up to approximately 3000 km 2 for australian conditions with the avon richardson catchment being at the upper boundary the residence time metric improved model assessment of sediment yields and enabled accounting for climatic variability on sediment delivery but at the cost of greater complexity and data requirements this metric might be more suitable for application in catchments with important climatic gradients i e large basins and at the regional scale the application of a regionalised hsdr metric did not increase data or computational requirements substantially and is recommended to improve assessment of hillslope erosion in empirical semi lumped erosion modelling applications however more research is needed to assess the quality of spatial patterns of erosion depicted by the different landscape metrics

limits of sediment transfer in an alpine debris flow catchment illgraben switzerland abstract the 9 5 km 2 illgraben catchment located in the rhone valley in the central alps of switzerland is one of the most active debris flow torrents in the alps in this paper we present sediment yield data collected in 2006 for segments where hillslopes and channels form a fully connected network and contrast these with sediment yields measured for disconnected hillslopes the data reveal that sediment yields are 1 2 orders of magnitude larger in segments where hillslopes are connected with the channel network than on disconnected hillslopes support for this conclusion is provided by observations made on 1959 1999 and 2004 aerial photographs that the vegetation cover in the disconnected segments is still intact whereas denudation rates of several centimeters per year in the connected segments have inhibited the establishment of a stable vegetation cover furthermore sediment supplied from hillslopes during the past 40 years has temporarily accumulated along the illgraben channel indicating that the channel aggraded over this period and has not yet recovered an implication of this observation is that initiation of debris flows in the illgraben catchment is limited more by the availability of intense rainfall than sediment in contrast on disconnected hillslopes sediment flux does not appear to be driven by precipitation the petrographic composition of the illgraben fan deposits indicates two distinct sediment sources one related to rockfall and the other to landslides and debris flows the presence of clasts from both sources implies multiple processes of erosion deposition mixing and re entrainment in the catchment before the material is exported to the illgraben fan and to the rhone river in addition delivery of large amounts of coarse grained sediment to the rhone causes a modification of the flow pattern from meandering or anastomosing upstream to braided downstream hence the direct connectivity between hillslope and channelized processes in the illgraben catchment causes not only rapid topographic modifications in the catchment but also morphologic adjustment in the rhone valley downstream

coupling between hillslopes and channels in upland fluvial systems implications for landscape sensitivity illustrated from the howgill fells northwest england abstract the sensitivity of upland fluvial systems depends on the magnitude and frequency of sediment and flood producing events modified by the internal coupling characteristics of the system this paper assesses the role of hillslope channel coupling for the sensitivity of upland geomorphic systems using evidence from a 30 year monitoring programme of geomorphic change in the carlingill valley howgill fells northwest england in the hillslope zone there is little sediment supply to the stream system locally slope failures occur in response to extreme events six such events in 30 years within the ca 6 km 2 carlingill valley in the footslope coupling zone basally induced gullies are major sediment sources to the stream sediment production events occur ca 30 times per year feeding sediment to basal debris cones stream floods which can entrain these sediments occur once every ca 2 5 years stream channel morphology is adjusted to this regime downstream of gullies channels are wide and braided elsewhere they are narrow and single thread as the gullies develop however this coupling weakens and the eroding slopes eventually stabilise by revegetation over the 30 year monitoring period there has been a progressive trend towards gully stabilisation and an associated reduction in channel instability massive destabilisation may occur in response to rare extreme flood events such an event return period 100 years occurred in neighbouring langdale and bowderdale valleys in june 1982 that event destabilised the system causing slope failures fan deposition and in some places a switch in channel style to wide braided channels since 1982 there has been a progressive recovery by slope stabilisation and single thread sinuous channels have become reestablished a different style of extreme event occurred in carlingill in october 1998 in response to the wettest week in the 30 year period a slope failure fed debris flows 400 m downslope almost coupling with the channel system future climatic change could render the system prone to destabilisation through either extreme flood events or through major slope failures

object representations at multiple scales from digital elevation models in the last decade landform classification and mapping has developed as one of the most active areas of geomorphometry however translation from continuous models of elevation and its derivatives slope aspect and curvatures to landform divisions landforms and landform elements is filtered by two important concepts scale and object ontology although acknowledged as being important these two issues have received surprisingly little attention this contribution provides an overview and prospects of object representation from dems as a function of scale relationships between object delineation and classification or regionalization are explored in the context of differences between general and specific geomorphometry a review of scales issues in geomorphometry ranging from scale effects to scale optimization techniques is followed by an analysis of pros and cons of using cells and objects in dem analysis prospects for coupling multi scale analysis and object delineation are then discussed within this context we propose discrete geomorphometry as a possible approach between general and specific geomorphometry discrete geomorphometry would apply to and describe land surface divisions defined solely by the criteria of homogeneity in respect to a given land surface parameter or a combination of several parameters homogeneity in its turn should always be relative to scale

expert driven semi automated geomorphological mapping for a mountainous area using a laser dtm in this paper a semi automated method is presented to recognize and spatially delineate geomorphological units in mountainous forested ecosystems using statistical information extracted from a 1 m resolution laser digital elevation dataset the method was applied to a mountainous area in austria first slope angle and elevation characteristics were determined for each key geomorphological unit occurring in the study area second a map of slope classes derived from the laser dtm was used in an expert driven multilevel object oriented approach the resulting classes represent units corresponding to landforms and processes commonly recognized in mountain areas fluvial terrace alluvial fan slope with mass movement talus slope rock cliff glacial landform shallow incised channel and deep incised channel the classification result was compared with a validation dataset of geomorphological units derived from an analogue geomorphological map for the above mentioned classes the percentages of correctly classified grid cells are 69 79 50 64 32 61 23 and 70 respectively the lower values of 32 and 23 are mainly related to inaccurate mapping of rock cliffs and shallow incised channels in the analogue geomorphological map the accuracy increased to 76 and 54 respectively if a buffer is applied to these specific units it is concluded that high resolution topographical data derived from laser dtms are useful for the extraction of geomorphological units in mountain areas

evaluation of current statistical approaches for predictive geomorphological mapping abstract predictive models are increasingly used in geomorphology but systematic evaluations of novel statistical techniques are still limited the aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of generalized linear models glm generalized additive models gam classification tree analysis cta neural networks ann and multiple adaptive regression splines mars in predictive geomorphological modelling five different distribution models both for non sorted and sorted patterned ground were constructed on the basis of four terrain parameters and four soil variables to evaluate the models the original data set of 9997 squares of 1 ha in size was randomly divided into model training 70 n 6998 and model evaluation sets 30 n 2999 in general active sorted patterned ground is clearly defined in upper fell areas with high slope angle and till soils active non sorted patterned ground is more common in valleys with higher soil moisture and fine scale concave topography the predictive performance of each model was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve auc and the kappa value the relatively high discrimination capacity of all models auc 0 85 0 88 and kappa 0 49 0 56 implies that the model s predictions provide an acceptable index of sorted and non sorted patterned ground occurrence the best performance for model calibration data for both data sets was achieved by the cta however when the predictive mapping ability was explored through the evaluation data set the model accuracies of cta decreased clearly compared to the other modelling techniques for model evaluation data mars performed marginally best our results show that the digital elevation model and soil data can be used to predict relatively robustly the activity of patterned ground in fine scale in a subarctic landscape this indicates that predictive geomorphological modelling has the advantage of providing relevant and useful information on earth surface processes over extensive areas such data being unavailable through more conventional survey methods

connectivity as a crucial determinant of badland morphology and evolution the way in which threshold behaviour landscape sensitivity and connectivity1 operate together at the meso and macro scale in badlands is initially considered from a theoretical energy utilisation perspective the argument is developed that intrinsic changes to process domain dominance can result in progressive shifts in process connectivity without the need to invoke external climatic or tectonic change from this premise a meso scale closed system model for the evolution of connected states in regionally isolated badlands is developed applicable to systems evolving towards a fixed base level within a less erosive host landscape the model shows how badlands disconnected from regional drainage can develop from a wide range of initial states into a convergent quasi equilibrium followed by a period of complex response as energy is dissipated across thresholds giving rise to a range of equifinal maximum entropy landscapes this classification is illustrated using a range of global badland examples longer term macro scale interruptions to this semi deterministic model of badland relief degradation are also considered from this longer term larger scale perspective it is argued that extrinsic changes to relative relief can be driven by base level changes tectonically isostatically or eustatically induced in which case the continuity and linkages of information within the system are modified by effects which move up through the system bottom up control macro scale climatic changes also alter connectivity by changing the power distribution of prevailing events and by causing long term changes in mean precipitation temperature and e p ratio which affect vegetation and therefore runoff resistance all across the landscape from this perspective longer term climatic change operates in a top down manner the interplay between these two larger scale controls will inevitably determine the pattern of connected states that the landscape experiences through time the top down and bottom up combinations that can lead to either rejuvenation and a return to the stages described for the closed system model or stabilisation enhanced phases of both morphological and geochemical stabilisation are discussed

the coupling status of alluvial fans and debris cones a review and synthesis alluvial fans and debris cones link two zones of the fluvial system e g hillslope gully systems to stream channels mountain catchment sediment source areas to main river systems or to sedimentary basins and therefore have important coupling or buffering roles these roles may be both functional and preservational the functional role includes debris cone coupling which controls sediment supply from hillslope gully systems to stream channels influencing channel morphology coupling through larger alluvial fans expressed by fanhead trenching causes a distal shift in sedimentation zones or when expressed by through fan trenching causes complete sediment by pass the preservational role stems from the fact that fans and cones are temporary sediment storage zones and may preserve a record of source area environmental change more sensitively than would sediments preserved further downsystem fan coupling mechanisms include distally induced coupling basal scour toe cutting marginal incision and proximally induced coupling fanhead and midfan trenching these mechanisms lead initially to partial coupling either extending the immediate sediment source area to the stream system or shifting the focus of sedimentation distally complete coupling involves transmission of sediment from the feeder catchment through the fan environment into the downstream drainage or a sedimentary basin the implications of coupling relate to downstream channel response fan morphology sedimentation patterns and vertical sedimentary sequences temporal and spatial scales of coupling are related and with increasing scales the dominant controls shift from storm events to land cover to climatic and base level change and ultimately to the relationships between tectonics and accommodation space finally future research challenges are identified modern dating techniques and sophisticated analysis of remotely sensed data can greatly improve our understanding of fan dynamics and should lead to better cross scale integration between short term process based approaches and long term sedimentological applications while maintaining high quality field based observations copyright 2011 john wiley sons ltd

the contribution of geomorphological mapping to sediment transfer evaluation in small alpine catchments the assessment of sediment transfer processes is necessary to understand the hydro geomorphological functioning of small alpine watersheds prone to channelised debris flows because their occurrence often depends on the amount of debris available in the gully systems therefore sediment budgets should be studied through the identification of erosion transport and deposition processes sediment transfer processes were investigated in a small catchment by field measurements and more specifically through the application of a process based geomorphological mapping method the proposed methodology is based on data directly derived from gis analysis using high resolution dem field measurements and aerial photograph interpretations it has been conceived to estimate sediment transfer dynamics taking into account the role of different sediment stores in the torrential system the proposed geomorphological mapping methodology is quite innovative in comparison with most legend systems that are not adequate for mapping comprehensively active and complex geomorphological systems such as debris flow catchments maps representing the various sediment storages and their relationships can be used for hydro geomorphological hazard mitigation

from geotechnical analysis to quantification and modelling using lidar data a study on rockfall in the reintal catchment bavarian alps germany in the year 2007 enhanced rockfall activity was observed within the scarp of a 500 bp rockslide in the reintal catchment northern calcareous alps germany the largest of a series of events took place in august when almost 50000 m of rock were detached from the subvertical rock face and deposited on a talus cone in this case study we focus on three aspects of rockfall research first we compile detailed geomorphological and geotechnical findings to explain the causes of the recent events the results of laboratory tests and stability estimations suggest that rockfall activity will persist in the future as the old rockslide scarp still contains unstable rock masses second we use digital elevation data from a pre event airborne lidar survey als and post event terrestrial laserscanning tls to quantify landform changes and the mass balance of the rockfall event s the widespread availability of als elevation data provides a good opportunity to quantify fresh events using a comparatively inexpensive tls survey this approach is complicated by uncertainties resulting from the difficult coregistration of als and tls data and the specific geometric problems in steep als and flat tls terrain it is therefore limited to at least medium sized events third the event s is simulated using the results of the lidar surveys and a modified gis based rockfall model in order to test its capability of predicting the extent and the spatial distribution of deposition on the talus cone results show that the model generally reproduces the process domain and the spatial distribution of topographic changes but frequently under and over estimates deposition heights copyright 2011 john wiley sons ltd

slope area relationships and sediment dynamics in two alpine streams the paper focuses on the channel network of alpine basins attempting to interpret channel reaches in terms of response to erosion and deposition processes two basins in the dolomites north eastern italy were considered the rio cordon 5 km2 and the upper boite river 163 km2 the channel network was extracted from raster type digital elevation models dem using a slope area threshold criterion a contribution area index cai which combines drainage area a and local slope s cai a0 5s was used to identify channel heads the channel network extracted from the dem was then analysed to recognize cells showing a value of cai lower than the threshold adopted for channel initiation contiguous cells with low values of cai define channel reaches with low transport efficiency field surveys carried out for some selected cases showed a good agreement between prevailing sediment deposition predicted by the analysis of the channel network and observed channel morphological features sediment sources mapped in two study basins were also analysed in relation to the location of channels with high potential for sediment deposition this made it possible to classify the potential role of different types of sediment sources with regard to basin sediment yield topographic characteristics of the channel network expressed by cai were compared with a classification of channel morphology in the rio cordon it was found that cells with low values of cai frequently occur in the riffle pool reaches whereas the percentage significantly decreases in step pool and bedrock channels copyright 2003 john wiley sons ltd

linking environmental regimes space and time interpretations of structural and functional connectivity connectivity as a concept has been increasingly part of discussions or explanations in hydrology geomorphology and ecology we address recent critiques of this approach by demonstrating how a refinement which distinguishes structural connectivity from functional connectivity can be used to explain patterns observed in very different environmental systems these systems are found in linkages between surface and subsurface flowpaths and the hyporheos in the river don a temperate river channel in yorkshire uk in surface and subsurface fluxes in agricultural land in the uk and in vegetation and surface conditions in a degrading environment at the sevilleta lter site in the semi arid southwest usa first we demonstrate long term geological and structural controls mediated by in channel processes second human organization of landscape elements is a significant control on runoff and erosion so that similar events can produce very different responses and vice versa third linkages between the removal of grass vegetation and runoff and erosion produce non linear and path dependent feedbacks which control the subsequent degradation of the landscape making the process difficult to reverse as a result of these studies we argue that even in cases where connectivity cannot be directly quantified at least at present this limitation does not prevent the concept from being a useful heuristic device for exploring responses of complex systems furthermore this result implies that an increasing need exists for disciplinary connectivity to investigate such systems