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18 - Urban geomorphology in the tropics

from Part III - Anthropogenic changes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2012

Avijit Gupta
Avijit Gupta
Affiliation:
University of Wollongong, New South Wales
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Summary

The mountain held the town as in a shadow.

Robert Frost

Introduction to urban geomorphology

Urban geomorphology evaluates the impact of urbanisation on landforms and the ambient geomorphological processes of an area. It focuses on alterations to the physical environment caused by the spread of towns and cities. Urban geomorphology developed from a number of case studies in the developed countries (mainly the United States) in the 1950s and 1960s. Wolman (1967) structured a three-stage sequence of changes in an area undergoing urbanisation:

  • Stage 1. Pre-Urban: land under natural vegetation or agriculture; river channels adjusted to existing conditions.

  • Stage 2. Brief period of construction: land stripped bare; soil and weathered material disturbed; extensive erosion; channels receiving large quantities of sediment; channels in disequilibrium.

  • Stage 3. Post-construction urban landscape: impervious surfaces of streets, parking lots, rooftops, etc; concrete drains and sewers replacing natural drainage to streams; insignificant erosion and sediment supply to channels; river channels still in disequilibrium but over time may adjust to new conditions or persist in a state of disequilibrium.

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Tropical Geomorphology , pp. 325 - 341
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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