Cálculo del perfil teórico de equilibrio de un río en función del índice de gradiente
- Francisco Jiménez-Cantizano 1
- Loreto Antón 2
- Ángel Soria-Jáuregui 3
- Candela Pastor-Martín 2
- 1 Agencia de Medio Ambiente y Agua, Sevilla, España
- 2 Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, España
- 3 Universidad del País Vasco, España
ISSN: 0213-683X
Year of publication: 2017
Issue Title: Comunicaciones presentadas en la LXII Sesión Científica / Guadalupe, 25 de Mayo de 2017
Issue: 62
Pages: 51-54
Type: Article
More publications in: Geogaceta
Abstract
This paper presents a method for calculating the theoretical graded profile of a river. That is based on the gradient index concept and takes the base level (mouth or confluence) and the headwater as reference points. The result is a concave line that follows a homogeneous logarithmic distribution and represents a graded profile for the analyzed stream. This theoretical graded profile can be compared with the present long profile, illustrating how far from the theoretical “equilibrium” is the stream. Differences between theoretical and real long profiles allow the quantification of “degree of adjustment” as the deviation from the calculated graded profile. We propose a new index (G) to quantify the degree of a stream adjustment to its graded long profile. The Tajo River and four tributaries long profiles are shown to illustrate how this methodology works on streams with different morphologies, corresponding to lithologic and structural contrast and / or to regional scale geological processes.