HR: 09:45h
AN: H41A-08 INVITED     [PDF]
TI: Characterizing Water Erosion Processes for Hillslope Evolution Models
AU: * Dunne, T
EM: tdunne@bren.ucsb.edu
AF: Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 United States
AB: Mike Kirkby formulated the co-evolution of topographic and soil profiles along hillslopes in terms of hydrologic and sediment transport processes and their environmental controls. His models emphasize the feedbacks and co-evolution of form and processes. He thus provided a road map for modeling the mass balance of regolith to link theories in geomorphology and soil science to theories in climatology, hydrology, and biology, and for doing this on the basis of concrete field data. This theoretical work challenged geomorphologists (and other environmental scientists) to develop formulae relating mineral and solute transport to its controls, and therefore to systematize their analyses of the geomorphic effects of climate, hydrology, vegetation, material properties, tectonism, and time. Field and laboratory measurements of the material transport processes responsible for landform evolution have accumulated more slowly than the theoretical developments, but are necessary for understanding actual magnitudes and rates of geomorphic change, the relative roles and interactions of various processes, and the influence of environmental factors on rates of landform change and sediment production. This talk will review progress and difficulties in responding to Kirkby's challenge for computing sediment transport by water on uncultivated hillslopes of realistic size and complexity over time periods sufficient to change the morphology of hillslopes. The question of validation will also be addressed.
DE: 1815 Erosion and sedimentation
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting