Presenters-0703
From CSDMS
CSDMS 2026: Modeling Landscapes in Motion
Landscape Evolution as a Surface-Subsurface Problem: From Headwaters to Orogens
Abstract
Decades of research have shown that storm runoff in many settings is primarily composed of pre-event groundwater. This groundwater is actively flowing, sometimes against topographic gradients, and in quantities substantial enough to alter the catchment water balance. Such effects have been observed across diverse lithologies and topographic settings, including mountainous environments that fluvial landscape evolution models often intend to capture. Yet to this day, most landscape evolution models represent runoff as a simple overland flow process. To explore the effects of groundwater flow on landscape evolution, we have developed coupled models in Landlab that represent both geomorphic change and surface-subsurface flow processes, in which runoff generated by a distributed hydrological model drives stream power fluvial erosion. We examine (1) hydrological function and topography in headwaters at geomorphic steady-state, and (2) transient dynamics at orogen-scale drainage divides, grounding our work in case studies and large-sample analyses. The results suggest that interactions between the surface and subsurface are often critical to understanding landscape evolution, and that long-term coevolution of hydrological and geomorphic processes may explain certain emergent hydrological traits of watersheds today.
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