An integral approach to bedrock river profile analysis

TLDR

Bedrock river profiles are usually analyzed using slope–area methods, but noisy topographic data hinder accurate interpretation. The study proposes an alternative method integrating the steady‑state stream power equation. The method transforms the horizontal coordinate to produce chi plots, straight lines whose slope reflects the uplift‑to‑erodibility ratio, enabling co‑linearity of tributaries and detection of transient erosion, demonstrated on digital topographic data. Chi plots reveal co‑linearity of steady‑state tributaries with the main stem and facilitate detection of transient erosional signals. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Bedrock river profiles are often interpreted with the aid of slope–area analysis, but noisy topographic data make such interpretations challenging. We present an alternative approach based on an integration of the steady‐state form of the stream power equation. The main component of this approach is a transformation of the horizontal coordinate that converts a steady‐state river profile into a straight line with a slope that is simply related to the ratio of the uplift rate to the erodibility. The transformed profiles, called chi plots, have other useful properties, including co‐linearity of steady‐state tributaries with their main stem and the ease of identifying transient erosional signals. We illustrate these applications with analyses of river profiles extracted from digital topographic datasets. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.