Groundwater affects the geomorphic and hydrologic properties of
coevolved landscapes
Abstract
The hydrologic dynamics and geomorphic evolution of watersheds are
intimately coupled – runoff generation and water storage are controlled
by topography and properties of the surface and subsurface, while also
affecting the evolution of those properties over geologic time. However,
the large disparity between their timescales has made it difficult to
examine interdependent controls on emergent hydro-geomorphic properties,
such as hillslope length, drainage density, extent of surface
saturation. In this study, we develop a new model coupling hydrology and
landscape evolution to explore how runoff generation affects long-term
catchment evolution, and analyze numerical results using a
nondimensional scaling framework. We focus on hydrologic processes
dominating in humid climates where storm runoff primarily arises from
shallow subsurface flow and from precipitation on saturated areas. The
model solves hydraulic groundwater equations to predict the water table
location given prescribed, constant groundwater recharge. Water in
excess of the subsurface capacity for transport becomes overland flow,
which generates shear stress on the surface and may detach and transport
sediment. This affects the landscape form that in turn affects runoff
generation. We show that (1) three dimensionless parameters describe the
possible steady state landscapes that coevolve under steady recharge;
(2) hillslope length increases with increasing transmissivity relative
to the recharge rate; (3) three topographic metrics—steepness index,
Laplacian curvature, and topographic index—provide a basis to recover
key model parameters from topography (including subsurface
transmissivity). These results open possibilities for topographic
analysis of humid upland landscapes that could inform quantitative
understanding of hydrological processes at the landscape scale.