Abstract
Analysis of 1546 storm flows from eight small basins in South Africa provides new evidence that hourly rainfall intensity, and consequently overland flow, play a minor role in flood production in many source areas. Regressed against gross storm rainfall and maximum hourly rainfall intensities, storm-flow volumes showed: (1) decreasing sensitivity to rain intensity on high response basins; and (2) decreasing sensitivity as rainstorm size increases on the same basin. In other words, small channel-source storm flows respond to hourly intensity, but large storm flows from expanded source areas do not. Afforestation of a 195-ha basin with Pinus patula produced a detectable but unimportant decrease in storm flows and peak flows, while periodic burning of grass veld ( Themeda grasses) showed no detectable change in storm flows or peak flows. Results are consistent with previous analyses of actual data from a number of drainage basins large enough to contain perennial streams.
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