Global Analysis of Topographic and Climatic Controls on Drainage Basin Shapes

Abstract

Drainage basins are fundamental units of Earth's surface, describing how flows accumulate across landscapes. They are direct expressions of how tectonics and climatic forces alter Earth's surface morphology. Here, we measure the width-to-length ratios (WLRs) of 386,931 drainage basins (average area ∼157 km2), covering all continents except Antarctica and Greenland. Global variations in WLRs are correlated with climatic aridity, whole-basin slope, and local topographic roughness. Basins in arid landscapes tend to be narrower, potentially reflecting a higher prevalence of surface runoff and therefore a stronger slope-parallel component of the transporting flow. Local topographic roughness is associated with wider basins, potentially reflecting greater dispersion of flow directions. Conversely, whole-basin topographic gradients, potentially reflecting gradients in uplift, are associated with narrower basins. However, steeper basins are also often rougher, so revealing the effects of whole-basin slope requires correcting for the confounding effects of roughness variations.