Earth Surface Dynamics
Earth Surface Dynamics
ESurf
Articles | Volume 12, issue 6
Articles | Volume 12, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-1347-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-12-1347-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 12, issue 6
Research article
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 | 
05 Dec 2024
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 05 Dec 2024

Channel concavity controls planform complexity of branching drainage networks

Liran Goren and Eitan Shelef

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Latest update: 14 Jan 2025
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This paper presents a new way of quantifying geometries of drainage networks, moving beyond river long profiles to explore the complexity of planform branching river networks. Using the proposed length asymmetry metric, the paper demonstrates that complexity is correlated with landscape aridity, where arid landscapes have less complex networks compared to humid ones, suggesting this metric could be a new way of exploring the impact of climate on Earth's topography.
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Short summary
To explore the pattern formed by rivers as they crisscross the land, we developed a way to measure how these patterns vary, from straight to complex, winding paths. We discovered that a river's degree of complexity depends on how the river slope changes downstream. Although this is strange (i.e., why would changes in slope affect twists of a river in map view?), we show that this dependency is almost inevitable and that the complexity could signify how arid the climate is or used to be.
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