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Last updated: 06/13/01
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HYD 252 Hillslope Geomorphology and Sediment Budgets


Online TA

To facilitate your learning of the subject material for this course, this page has been set up to allow you to ask the teaching asistant and professor questions about the readings, lectures, field trips, or other appropriate topics. Your questions and their answers will be posted (anonymously) here, so that all students may benefit from the answer, since it is likely that several people are wondering about the same thing.

Before sending in your question, be sure to re-read the appropriate textbook section, re-visit the corresponding lecture notes, and consider any relevant handouts. Please take the time to carefully phrase your question so that it may be properly answered. The more specific and well-phrased the question is, the more direct and useful the answer will be to yourself and your classmates.

Send your question to gpast@ucdavis.edu

Questions and Answers


Hillslope Homework

Q: I am thinking about divergent versus planar zones in our study site, and I have the following problem: If I were to be totally anal, I'd have to say that a point on a divergent hill has zero contributing area, yet we know that water does go down those kind of hill slopes. Similarily, the planar contributing area to a point would have to be a one dimensional object, i.e. have no area as well.
A: A divergent point on a hillslope has zero contributing area. A planar point on a hillslope has a line for its contributing area. As you choose a large contour width on a planar hillslope, the contributing area changes from a line to a rectangle of increasing width. So for your homework, you cannot simply pick "points", but you actually need to pick contour segments to get a measureable upslope area.

Q: I have a few questions in reference to the write-up. I have somewhat of a rough draft, but I am unsure what exactly I should put in my results. Right now, in the discussion i have simply answered the questions you asked to discuss. in the results you state to include important findings in the results section of the report. can you give me an example of what you would like for me to include in this part.
A: The results section is the place to present numbers, tables, and figures. You can describe trends in the data as well. In the discussion section you should try your best to explain the results and look at the larger picture of the project.

Q: On questions 4 and 5 of the data analysis part of the assignment handout, is that the same question twice? Or are you asking for four different longitudinal slope profiles of noses and valleys?
A: A "logitudinal profile" is a plot of elevation. A "longitudinal slope profile" is a plot of slope. The latter is the derivative of the former.

Q: On question 7, when you ask for a vector map to show the steepest decent path, are you asking for a slope analysis of the entire basin delineating steeper regions from less steep regions, or are you asking for a single flow path delineated by vectors which represents the steepest decent path?
A: I am asking for the latter- flowpaths for single points that follow the steepest descent- but show vectors for more than just 1 point.

Sediment Budgets Homework

Q: For the question on calculating total sediment load from a river, is the second graph a plot of mean annual discharges for 92 years or is it a plot of 92 discharges for one year?
A: It is a standard plot of mean annual discharges for 92 years.

Q: In the Brune equation for reservoir sedimentation is "total annual inflow" referring to water or sediment?
A: It is referring to water.


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