Abstract
In this study, the river system and the surface drainage system (SDS) operating during heavy rainfall in two Carpathian catchments located in foothills and medium-high mountain areas were compared. The results revealed that regardless of the differences in the river systems and physiographical parameters of the catchments, the SDS operating during heavy rainfall becomes similar. This similarity is reflected in the density of the SDS (11.5–12.2 km·km−2) and the structure of the SDS, confirmed by Hortonian-type analysis. This similarity in the SDS was discussed in the context of the geomorphological transformation of the hillslopes and the hydrological response of a catchment to heavy rainfall.
Highlights
A surface drainage system (SDS) is one of the most important components in a catchment
The number of streams in the SDS has increased 50 times in the Zalasówka and 16 times in the Bystrzanka
For the SDS operating during heavy rainfall, the mean stream length of 1st-order streams reaches c.a. 0.1 km in both catchments and it is up to 4 times smaller compared to this value for the river system (0.47 km—Zalasówka and 0.33 km—Bystrzanka)
Summary
A surface drainage system (SDS) is one of the most important components in a catchment. Schumm [12] were pioneering in this area These works, among others, have revealed that the drainage network is a dynamic component of the catchment and changes with different types of hydro-meteorological conditions, catchment relief and geology [17]—review [18,19,20,21,22]. The papers showed that the structure of the natural-origin drainage system reflects geo-morpho-climatological conditions of the region, where this system was developed [13,16] Those relationships were the base for integrating hydrologic, ecologic and geomorphologic dynamics of river basins [9]—review. During extreme hydro-meteorological events such as heavy rainfalls, when the most preferable conditions for the overland flow formation occur [1], the natural- and man-origin incisions operate as one ‘real’ SDS. The ALS-LIDAR data released in recent years gave a new opportunity in the ‘real’ SDS reconstruction and characterization [27,28]
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