Articles | Volume 13, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-1263-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-13-1263-2025
Research article
 | 
03 Dec 2025
Research article |  | 03 Dec 2025

Reconstructing landscapes: an adjoint model of the stream power and diffusion erosion equation

Carole Petit, Anthony Jourdon, and Nicolas Coltice

Related authors

River incision, 10Be production and transport in a source-to-sink sediment system (Var catchment, SW Alps)
Carole Petit, Tristan Salles, Vincent Godard, Yann Rolland, and Laurence Audin
Earth Surf. Dynam., 11, 183–201, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-183-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-183-2023, 2023
Short summary
A new finite element approach to model microscale strain localization within olivine aggregates
Jean Furstoss, Carole Petit, Clément Ganino, Marc Bernacki, and Daniel Pino-Muñoz
Solid Earth, 12, 2369–2385, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-2369-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-2369-2021, 2021
Short summary

Cited articles

Armitage, J., Dunkley Jones, T., Duller, R., Whittaker, A., and Allen, P.: Temporal buffering of climate-driven sediments flux cycles by transient catchment response, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 369–370, 200–210, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2013.03.020, 2013. a
Armitage, J. J., Whittaker, A. C., Zakari, M., and Campforts, B.: Numerical modelling of landscape and sediment flux response to precipitation rate change, Earth Surf. Dynam., 6, 77–99, https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-6-77-2018, 2018. a
Armstrong, A. C.: Slopes, boundary conditions, and the development of convexo-concave forms—some numerical experiments, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 12, 17–30, https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.3290120104, 1987. a
Armstrong, P., Ehlers, T., Chapman, D., Farley, K., and Kamp, P.: Exhumation of the central Wasatch Mountains, Utah: 1. Patterns and timing of exhumation deduced from low-temperature thermochronology data, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 108, https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JB001708, 2003. a
Balay, S., Gropp, W. D., McInnes, L. C., and Smith, B. F.: Efficient Management of Parallelism in Object Oriented Numerical Software Libraries, in: Modern Software Tools in Scientific Computing, edited by Arge, E., Bruaset, A. M., and Langtangen, H. P., pp. 163–202, Birkhauser Press, 1997. a
Download
Short summary
We usually simulate how landscapes evolve by starting from an imaginary situation in the past, and applying physical laws to simulate the effect of erosion and tectonics. Here, we reverse the approach: starting from today's landscape, we work backwards to find out how it has evolved. Using a simple physical description of erosive and tectonic processes, we can infer which areas are more sensitive to erosion, or how the landscape looked like before erosion, or how fast it has been uplifting.
Share