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A global dataset of river network geometry

The plan-form structure of the world’s river basins contains extensive information regarding tectonic, paleo-geographic and paleo-climate conditions, but interpretation of this structure is complicated by the need to disentangle these processes from the autogenic behavior of fluvial processes. One m...

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Autores principales: Giachetta, Emanuele, Willett, Sean D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6038850/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29989592
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.127
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author Giachetta, Emanuele
Willett, Sean D.
author_facet Giachetta, Emanuele
Willett, Sean D.
author_sort Giachetta, Emanuele
collection PubMed
description The plan-form structure of the world’s river basins contains extensive information regarding tectonic, paleo-geographic and paleo-climate conditions, but interpretation of this structure is complicated by the need to disentangle these processes from the autogenic behavior of fluvial processes. One method of interpreting this structure is by integrating channel length and drainage area as characterized by the scaling relationship between slope and area, resulting in a characteristic length parameter, referred to in recent studies as χ. In this paper, we apply this methodology at a continental scale by calculating χ for the world’s river networks. Mapping of χ', a modified version of χ including the influence of precipitation distribution on river discharge and correction of base level for χ' in closed basins, illustrates the geometric structure of global river networks, thus highlighting where tectonics or changing climate have resulted in an apparent disequilibrium of the river channel geometry. Our global χ maps quantify a dynamic view of Earth’s river networks and help to identify past and ongoing evolution of Earth’s landscape.
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spelling pubmed-60388502018-07-12 A global dataset of river network geometry Giachetta, Emanuele Willett, Sean D. Sci Data Data Descriptor The plan-form structure of the world’s river basins contains extensive information regarding tectonic, paleo-geographic and paleo-climate conditions, but interpretation of this structure is complicated by the need to disentangle these processes from the autogenic behavior of fluvial processes. One method of interpreting this structure is by integrating channel length and drainage area as characterized by the scaling relationship between slope and area, resulting in a characteristic length parameter, referred to in recent studies as χ. In this paper, we apply this methodology at a continental scale by calculating χ for the world’s river networks. Mapping of χ', a modified version of χ including the influence of precipitation distribution on river discharge and correction of base level for χ' in closed basins, illustrates the geometric structure of global river networks, thus highlighting where tectonics or changing climate have resulted in an apparent disequilibrium of the river channel geometry. Our global χ maps quantify a dynamic view of Earth’s river networks and help to identify past and ongoing evolution of Earth’s landscape. Nature Publishing Group 2018-07-10 /pmc/articles/PMC6038850/ /pubmed/29989592 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.127 Text en Copyright © 2018, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ applies to the metadata files made available in this article.
spellingShingle Data Descriptor
Giachetta, Emanuele
Willett, Sean D.
A global dataset of river network geometry
title A global dataset of river network geometry
title_full A global dataset of river network geometry
title_fullStr A global dataset of river network geometry
title_full_unstemmed A global dataset of river network geometry
title_short A global dataset of river network geometry
title_sort global dataset of river network geometry
topic Data Descriptor
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6038850/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29989592
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.127
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