Filtering by Subject: Geomorphology
Published: 2023-10-03
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Fluid Dynamics, Geomorphology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Physics, Planetary Geomorphology, Planetary Sciences, Sedimentology
Dunes form where winds blow over a bed of mobile sediment grains – conditions that are common in our solar system. On Earth, dunes abound in arid continental interiors and along sandy coastlines. Dune fields have also been recognized on other planetary bodies, including Venus, Mars, Saturn’s moon Titan, and Pluto. Despite the relatively basic conditions required for their formation, dunes adopt a [...]
Published: 2023-09-25
Subjects: Biogeochemistry, Climate, Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Arctic permafrost, the largest non-seasonal component of Earth’s cryosphere, contains a significant climate-sensitive carbon pool. Its potential for loss due to climatic changes leading to a global tipping point, where thawing accelerates with disproportionate impacts, remains debated. Here, we provide an integrative perspective on this question, building on a cross-disciplinary meta-analysis of [...]
Published: 2023-09-02
Subjects: Geomorphology
Erosion following human disturbance threatens ecosystem health and inhibits effective land use. Mountaintop removal (MTR) mined landscapes of the Appalachian Coalfields region, USA, provide a unique opportunity to quantify the geomorphic trajectory of disturbed lands. Here we assess how MTR-induced changes to topography and vegetation influence spatiotemporal erosion patterns by modeling [...]
Published: 2023-09-01
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Hydrology
The distribution of sediment grain size in streams and rivers is often quantified by the median grain size (d50), a key metric for understanding and predicting hydrologic and biogeochemical function of streams and rivers. Manual methods to measure d50 are time-consuming and ignore larger grains, while model-based methods to estimate d50 often over-generalize basin characteristics, and therefore [...]
Published: 2023-08-03
Subjects: Geomorphology, Statistical Models
The initial inception of the landslide susceptibility concept defined it as a static property of the landscape, explaining the proneness of certain locations to generate slope failures. Since the spread of data-driven probabilistic solutions though, the original susceptibility definition has been challenged to incorporate dynamic elements that would lead the occurrence probability to change both [...]
Published: 2023-07-28
Subjects: Geomorphology
Surface mining may be humanity's most tangible impact on Earth's surface, and will become more prevalent globally as the energy transition progresses. Prediction of post-mining landscape change can help mitigate environmental damage and allow effective reuse of mined lands, but requires understanding how mining changes geomorphic processes and variables. Here we investigate surface mining's [...]
Published: 2023-07-26
Subjects: Climate, Geomorphology, Oceanography, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences
Almar and colleagues (2023) are correct in stating that, “understanding and predicting shoreline evolution is of great importance for coastal management.” Amongst the different timescales of shoreline change, the interannual and decadal timescales are of particular interest to coastal scientists as they reflect the integrated system response to the Earth’s climate and its natural modes of [...]
Published: 2023-07-21
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geology, Geomorphology, Hydrology
Runoff-generated debris flows are common hazards in mountainous regions, causing millions of dollars lost and hundreds of casualties yearly. Early warning systems based on rainfall thresholds have been implemented to reduce the impact of these hazards. These thresholds tend to be based on short monitoring periods, which cannot fully capture the varying responses of catchments to rainfall. As a [...]
Published: 2023-07-10
Subjects: Civil and Environmental Engineering, Earth Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Geomorphology, Oceanography, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Other Earth Sciences, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Satellite remote sensing is becoming a widely used monitoring technique in coastal sciences. Yet, no benchmarking studies exist that compare the performance of popular satellite-derived shoreline (SDS) mapping algorithms against standardized sets of inputs and validation data. Here we present a new benchmarking framework to evaluate the accuracy of shoreline change observations extracted from [...]
Published: 2023-07-06
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Geomorphology, Remote Sensing
Digital elevation models (DEMs) are a necessity for modelling many large-scale environmental processes. In this study, we investigate the potential of two spaceborne lidar altimetry instruments, ICESat-2 and GEDI—with respect to their vertical accuracies and planimetric data collection patterns—as sources for rasterisation towards global DEMs. We validate the terrain measurements of both missions [...]
Published: 2023-06-23
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Geomorphology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Statistics and Probability
Geometries of eroding landscapes contain important information about geologic, climatic, biotic and geomorphic processes. They are also characterised by variability, which makes disentangling their origins challenging. Observations and physical models of fluvial processes, which set the pace of erosion on most continents, emphasise complexity and variability. In contrast, the spectral content of [...]
Published: 2023-05-25
Subjects: Earth Sciences, Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment, Geomorphology, Hydrology, Other Earth Sciences, Other Environmental Sciences, Sedimentology
The process of macroplastic (>0.5 cm) fragmentation results in the production of smaller plastic particles (micro- and nanoplastics), which threaten biota and human health and are difficult to remove from the environment. The global coverage and long retention times of macroplastic waste in fluvial systems (ranging from years to centuries) create long-lasting and widespread potential for its [...]
Published: 2023-05-17
Subjects: Databases and Information Systems, Geomorphology, Glaciology, Other Earth Sciences
This paper presents the specific process we, as part of the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Semantic Harmonization Cluster, used to harmonize terms from the Global Cryosphere Watch (GCW) compilation of cryospheric terms with the Semantic Web for Earth and Environmental Terminology (SWEET) and the Environment Ontology (ENVO). In addition, we summarize a number of leading practices which [...]
Published: 2023-05-03
Subjects: Geomorphology
Amplified warming of high latitudes and rapid thaw of frozen ground threatens permafrost carbon stocks. The presence of permafrost modulates water infiltration and flow, as well as sediment transport, on soil-mantled slopes, influencing the balance of advective fluvial processes to diffusive processes on hillslopes in ways that are different from temperate settings. These processes that shape [...]
Published: 2023-04-28
Subjects: Applied Statistics, Geomorphology, Glaciology, Statistical Models
Classifying a given landscape on the basis of its susceptibility to surface processes is a standard procedure in low to mid-latitudes. Conversely, these procedures have hardly been explored in periglacial regions, primarily because of the limited presence of human settlements and, therefore, the little need for risk assessment. However, global warming is radically changing this situation and [...]