Badland Erosion and Its Morphometric Features in the Tropical Monsoon Area

Abstract

Climatically driven processes are important controls on the Earth’s surface and on interactions between the hydrological cycle and erosion in drainage basins. As a result, landscape forms such as hillslope topography can be used as an archive to reconstruct historical climatic conditions. Recent progress in the Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetric technique allows for the construction of high-resolution, low-cost topography data using remote-controlled unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveys. Here, we present the climatic effects on the hillslope erosion rate that can be obtained from the drainage frequency of hillslopes. We quantify the centimeter-scale accuracy of surveys across 72 badland hillslopes in SE Taiwan, which is a tropical monsoon area with an annual precipitation of over 2 m. Our observations indicate that climatic erosion results in a higher drainage frequency and the number of furrows, instead of drainage density. Additionally, the morphometric slope index (MSI) has a strong positive correlation with erosion and its rate but shows a negative correlation with drainage length and a positive correlation with inclination. This suggests that the erosion pattern is due to gravitational mass wasting instead of hydrological erosion. MSI should always be calculated relying on the normalized slope length and is less applicable to landslide-dominated erosion. We, therefore, suggest that UAV-driven digital elevation models (DEMs) are integrated into erosion mapping to aid in identifying erosion patterns. We highlight the unique opportunity for cross-climate zone comparative studies offered by badland landscapes and differential rainfall patterns, with remote sensing techniques and the morphometric slope index.

Mediterranean badlands: Their driving processes and climate change futures

“…Badland hydro‐geomorphological functioning has aroused much concern for more than 100 years (Nadal‐Romero et al, 2018). As a result, the main drivers governing badlands response have been identified in different locations around the world (i.e., Boardman et al, 2015; Bollati et al, 2019; Clarke & Rendel, 2010; Yang et al, 2019). However, up to now, available datasets did not allow us to analyze how these drivers have varied in response to climate changes and their impacts on badlands hydro‐geomorphology, as most of them cover only short periods of time.…”

“…Finally, values of specific climate predictions for each study site described in TableS1was extracted, and this information was used to elucidate the future response of the different badland types.3 | RESULTS AND DISCUSSION3.1 | Climate-drivers in badland areasBadland hydro-geomorphological functioning has aroused much concern for more than 100 years. As a result, the main drivers governing badlands response have been identified in different locations around the world (i.e.,Boardman et al, 2015;Bollati et al, 2019; Clarke & Rendel, 2010;Yang et al, 2019). However, up to now, available datasets did not allow us to analyze how these drivers have varied in response to climate changes and their impacts on badlands hydro-geomorphology, as most of them cover only short periods of time.…”

Analysis of Storage Capacity Change and Dam Failure Risk for Tailings Ponds Using WebGIS-Based UAV 3D Image

“…In this study, the selection of GCPs adhered to discerning Ground control points (GCPs) are ground feature points with known geographic coordinates that are used to provide precise georeferencing and accurate 3D reconstruction during UAV tilt photography. In this study, the selection of GCPs adhered to discerning principles such as flat terrain, open field of view, evident markers, ease of identification, and relatively uniform spatial distribution [46,47]. A total of ten GCPs were strategically deployed and measured to guarantee and improve the accuracy of the 3D images of the tailings pond.…”

Mobile evaporite enhances the cycle of physical-chemical erosion in badlands

“…Badlands are landscapes characterized by highly erodible and weathered substrates, which are largely devoid of vegetation. The high erodibility of these landscapes provides a unique opportunity to investigate and quantify denudation processes that operate at short timescales (Cheng et al, 2019;Yang et al, 2019Yang et al, , 2021a2021b). Soils that contain clays saturated in sodium ions are particularly vulnerable to erosion by water.…”