The Influence of Scale on the Factors Affecting Stream Channel Slope

Bibliographic Data

ID8963733
AuthorsEdmund C Penning‐rowsell (0000-0002-5333-8641, corresponding author), Edmund C Penning-Rowsell, John Townshend, John R G Townshend
Year1978
Volume3
Issue4
Pages395-395
Publication date1978-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.2307/622120
OpenAlexW2314017014
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited7

The effect of scale on geographical explanations is noteworthy because of the need to relate spatial patterns and form to the correct processes so that valid process/form models can be developed. An investigation in south-east England of the factors affecting stream channel slope, an important variable influencing landscape morphology, shows that local variations in stream slope are related to stream bed material size while broader variations in reach slope are more closely related to stream discharge. Bed material size helps to explain variations in stream slope between, rather than within, lithologically homogeneous areas. Channel shape does not help to explain variations in local stream slope at a regional scale, but in a detailed study of a single stream reach acting as a natural flume this variable is dominant. With each study at a progressively more local scale there is a shift in importance from those variables which show systematic variations only over long distances to those which can vary more rapidly over shorter distances. Stream channels are studied in this paper at three different scales: the broad scale of the river reach, the local scale of small sites within these reaches and, finally, by examining in detail a series of adjacent sites along a single reach, a situation approximating a natural flume. The relationships between stream-channel variables are examined in areas of contrasting rock types in glaciated and unglaciated parts of Britain and are compared both with relationships for streams in Appalachia, U.S.A., through a fresh analysis of Hack's (1957) data, and with results from other investigations elsewhere. We believe that the differing relationships at these different scales and geographical circumstances point to significant geomorphological and methodological conclusions. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE STUDY OF STREAM CHANNEL SLOPE Scientific study of the factors affecting stream-channel slope was initiated by Sternberg (1875, in Woodford, 1951) who showed that for part of the Rhine the particle size of its bed material decreases downstream. He argued that this caused the stream's longitudinal profile to develop a characteristic concave-up form adjusted to bed material size. Gilbert (1877), however, empha- sized the importance of downstream increases in stream discharge in controlling the general 395

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