Abstract

The elevation-area relationship within drainage basins has a strong bearing on manifold biophysical processes. The understanding of erosional and hydrodynamical processes also benefits from quantitative characterization of elevation distribution or basin hypsometry. This study presents a comprehensive review of quantitative approaches to hypsometric analysis, ranging from simple indices to functional formulations (for example, Strahler). Detailed analyses of the goodness-of-fit reveal that the current suite of metrics is deficient when tested over a large number drainage basins (in this study, Congo, Narmada, and Yukon River basins), especially in the head and the toe sections of the hypsometric curve. A new three-parameter formulation is introduced in this study and tested over a large set of drainages (n=419). We find that this form adapts well to diverse elevational profiles. Application areas, such as large-scale analyses of drainage basin similarity and snowmelt modeling, use hypsometric parameterization and stand to benefit from the new functional characterization discussed here. Efficient estimation of hypsometric curves based on the new formulation also paves the way towards computational research at whole-earth scales utilizing large datasets involving millions of drainages.

摘要

流域内的高程关系对多种生物物理过程有重要影响。对侵蚀和水动力过程的理解还受益于高程分布或盆地测井法的定量表征。这项研究对定量分析催眠分析的定量方法进行了全面的综述，从简单的指标到功能性配方（例如Strahler）。对拟合优度的详细分析表明，当在大量流域（在本研究中，刚果，纳尔默达和育空河流域）进行测试时，特别是在流域的头和脚趾部分，当前的度量标准不足。压力曲线。本研究引入了一种新的三参数公式，并在大量排水系统上进行了测试（n= 419）。我们发现这种形式非常适合各种海拔剖面。应用领域，例如流域相似性的大规模分析和融雪建模，都使用了水压参数化，可以从这里讨论的新功能特性中受益。基于新公式的高效的测压曲线估算也为利用涉及数百万个排水系统的大型数据集进行全地球规模的计算研究铺平了道路。