The discharge of water over a particular point and the intensity of rainfall are not the determining factors in the development of rillenkarren. Dunkerley says that the physical chemistry of the solutional process must control flute formation and determine the rate of limestone removal. The rate-determining factor is some step involved in the surface reaction between calcium carbonate and the moving water. Because of morphologic differences between two sites it should be empathised that the factors that influence the dissolution reaction in a certain site are very important. These factors can be difference in texture and composition of the surface rock.
Temperature is also an important influence.
The development of a solutional flute, according to Dunkerley, is the metamorphose from one weathering form to another. Solutional attack on the bare rock begins at scattered points where solutional pits are developed. Downslope chains of depressions become progressively more smoothly formed and better connected. This is because of the universal mechanism that small irregularities in the pattern of solution tend to cause their own removal. This process gives the rillenkarren weathering form.