Jézéquel Céline, Oberdorff Thierry, Tedesco Pablo, Schmitt L. (2022). Geomorphological diversity of rivers in the Amazon Basin. Geomorphology, 400, p. 108078 [18 p.]. ISSN 0169-555X.
Titre du document
Geomorphological diversity of rivers in the Amazon Basin
Jézéquel Céline, Oberdorff Thierry, Tedesco Pablo, Schmitt L.
Source
Geomorphology, 2022,
400, p. 108078 [18 p.] ISSN 0169-555X
The regional extent and transboundary nature of the world largest rivers accentuate the difficulty to characterize river forms and processes at a whole basin scale. We developed a framework to define a river classification protocol adapted to large rivers and further applied this protocol to elaborate a geomorphological classification of Amazonian rivers using two interlocked hierarchical spatial scales: the landscape unit at the basin scale and the reach unit at the local scale. Our framework relies on open-source geospatial data, reproducible and automatic methods to extract the geomorphological attributes of the river network, and on statistical modelling. We followed five main steps to develop our geomorphological classification of Amazonian rivers: (1) the identification of the basin landscape units (LUs) using a set of physical, topographic, and climatic variables; (2) the delineation of the active channel and floodplain surfaces along the river basin longitudinal continuum using satellite image-based data; (3) the sub-division of the entire river network into elementary river reach units displaying uniform conditions; (4) the selection, at the reach scale, of a set of geomorphic variables adapted to large rivers; (5) the elaboration of the Amazonian rivers classification by statistically grouping the reach units into 'ho-mogenous' river types. Finally, we described the spatial patterns of river types within the basin, and illustrate the multi-scale flexibility and robustness of the approach focusing on the multi-threaded Negro River, a main tributary of the Amazon mainstem.
Plan de classement
Sciences fondamentales / Techniques d'analyse et de recherche [020]
;
Hydrologie [062]
;
Géologie et formations superficielles [064]
