What Is Geomorphology? Why Study Geomorphology - 10 Reasons? Geomorphology Categories The Geomorphic System

Introduction
 What is geomorphology?
 Why study geomorphology – 10 reasons?
 Geomorphology categories
 The geomorphic system
What is Geomorphology?
• Geomorphology is the science that studies

– the origin and development of landforms and
– how the landforms combine to form landscapes
(BSG).
• Interdisciplinary and Systematic Study of
Landforms, their Landscapes and the Earth
Surface Processes that Create and Change
them (IAG)
Every feature of the landscape is there for a reason.
We just have to be smart enough to figure out what the reason is.
– the quantitative and qualitative analysis of landform

shapes,
– the monitoring of surface (exogenic)and near-
surface (endogenic) processes that shape landforms
– the characterisation of landform changes that occur
in response to factors such as
• tectonic and volcanic activity,
• climate and sea level change,
• human activities.
• Investigations may be directed principally

towards
– Reconstructing past processes and landform
changes – historical geomorphology
– understanding present-day processes and
landform changes – process geomorphology
– anticipating future processes and landform
changes – prognostic geomorphology
Why is Geomorphology Important?
• geomorphology contributes to environmental

investigation and management
• Geomorphology and geomorphologists provide
– data,
– knowledge and
– perspectives
that are additional and complementary to those provided
by other academic disciplines and professions
• geomorphological considerations are important for
enabling a comprehensive approach to environmental
investigations and achieving sustainable environmental
management
Why is Geomorphology Important? The 10 Reasons
1. Landscapes are shaped by movements of mass -

Landforms are shaped by geomorphological
processes, which essentially involve the movement
of mass ‒ rock, sediment, water ‒ across the Earth's
surface
2. Landscape shaping processes are influenced by
many different factors – Various tectonic, geological,
climatic and ecological factors provide major
influences on geomorphological processes and the
movement of mass
3. Landscape processes operate at many different

scales – The tectonic, geological, climatic and
ecological factors that influence geomorphological
processes and movement of mass change with
different time and space scales
4. The Earth's landscapes are dynamic – Landforms and

landscapes are not static and unchanging, but are
dynamic and develop through time
5. Landscape dynamics are often complex – In addition

to changing tectonic, geological, climatic or
ecological conditions, internal readjustments can also
drive landform and landscape development
6. Landscapes are archives of the past – Landscapes

contain histories of their development that potentially
can be deciphered and reconstructed from study of
the associated landforms and sediments
7. Global change is influencing landscape dynamics –

Ongoing global environmental change, which includes
atmospheric warming and sea level rise, is currently driving
landform development, including desert lake desiccation,
ice sheet and glacial retreat, and coastline erosion
8. Human activities are influencing landscape dynamics -

Increasingly, many geomorphological processes and
landform/landscape developments are influenced by
human activities
9. The Earth's landscapes are becoming more hazardous – Both

global environmental change and human activities are
increasing the magnitude and frequency of geomorphological
hazards, which occur wherever and whenever land surface
stability is affected and adverse socio- economic impacts are
experienced
10. Successful environmental management needs

geomorphological knowledge – Geomorphology can provide a
key input to environmental management, including landscape
conservation, ecosystem conservation and restoration, heritage
conservation and carbon landscaping
Visit www.geomorphology.org.uk or www.geomorph.org for further details

Geomorphology Specialisations
• Geomorphology is a diverse science that draws on
aspects of other sciences, particularly physical geography,
geology, and ecology.
• Traditionally, geomorphological study approaches
focused mainly on field observation, description and
measurement but also included physical experimentation
• Since the early 1970s, large numbers of computer-based
topographic models have become readily available and
ground-based monitoring, computational modelling, and
geochronological (dating) techniques have advanced
rapidly.
• This resulted in different specialisations in geomorphology:
i. Historical geomorphology
ii. Process geomorphology
iii. Applied geomorphology
iv. Others
Historical geomorphology
• Landscapes are archives of the past
• All landforms have a history
– development that potentially can be decoded and
reconstructed from study of the associated landforms
and sediments
– sediments bear the distinctive signatures of processes
and events that occurred in the past
• the study of landform evolution or changes in
landforms over medium and long timescales,
usually timescales well beyond the span of an
individual human’s experience
• usually deal with relatively more persistent
landforms that take long to form and destroy
• ‘the present is the key to the past’
Process geomorphology
• the study of the phenomena responsible for
landform development
• Geomorphic processes are ‘…manifestations of
various types of shear stresses, both gravitational
and molecular, acting upon any type of earth
material to produce varieties of strain, or failure,
which we recognize as the manifold processes of
weathering, erosion, transportation and
deposition’ (Strahler, 1952: 923)
• models for predicting the short-term (and in some
cases long-term) changes in landforms
• ideas about stability and instability in
• geomorphic systems
Applied geomorphology
• largely an extension of process geomorphology
• focuses on the way in which geomorphic processes
affect, and are affected by, human activities
• ‘geomorphology for the service of Man’
• many geomorphological processes and
landform/landscape developments are influenced
by human activities
• understanding of geomorphological processes
contributes to the investigation of serious problems
associated with the human/landscape interactions.
• The interactions may include
– natural hazards of geomorphic origin
– natural resources exploitation
– effects of global environmental change
Other specialisations
• Tectonic geomorphology
– the interaction between tectonic and geomorphic
processes in regions where the Earth’s crust actively
deforms.
• Submarine geomorphology
– deals with the form, origin, and development of
features of the sea floor
• Climatic geomorphology
– each climatic zone (tropical, arid, temperate, for
example) engenders a distinctive suite of landforms
– Climate strongly influence geomorphic processes
The Geomorphic System
• Common in process geomorphology
– Any landform or landscape is a system as long as it is
composed of phenomena arranged in a particular way.
– The arrangement is systematic rather than random
– The arrangement is explicable from a physical process point
of view
• Any landscape has inputs, processes (throughputs),
storages, outputs, and units
• An example – a hillslope as a system (Elverfeldt & Glade, 2011)
• inputs - wind deposition, debris production

• storages - waste mantle
• outputs - wind erosion
• throughputs - debris transport
• units - channel, valley-side slope, interfluve
• Systems are described according to how they
interact, or do not interact, with their surroundings
– open, closed, or isolated
• Open
– energy and materials may move across boundaries
• Closed
– boundaries open to the passage of energy but not of matter
• Isolated
– completely cut off from its surroundings
– cannot import or export matter or energy
• All geomorphic systems are open systems
• geomorphic systems have internal
(endogenic)and external exogenic)
variables
• Endogenic variables lie inside the system
e.g. soil wetness, streamflow in a
drainage basin system
• Exogenic variables originate outside the
system but affect the system dynamics
e.g. precipitation, solar radiation,
tectonic uplift
• geomorphic systems can be thought of as
resulting from a basic antagonism between
endogenic (tectonic and volcanic)
processes driven by geological forces and
exogenic (geomorphic) processes driven by
climatic forces
• Simply put
– tectonic processes create land, and climatically
influenced weathering and erosion destroy it
• The events between the creation and the
final destruction are what interests
geomorphologists

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Introduction

• Geomorphology is the science that studies

– the quantitative and qualitative analysis of landform

• Investigations may be directed principally

• geomorphology contributes to environmental

1. Landscapes are shaped by movements of mass -

3. Landscape processes operate at many different

4. The Earth's landscapes are dynamic – Landforms and

5. Landscape dynamics are often complex – In addition

6. Landscapes are archives of the past – Landscapes

7. Global change is influencing landscape dynamics –

8. Human activities are influencing landscape dynamics -

9. The Earth's landscapes are becoming more hazardous – Both

10. Successful environmental management needs

Visit www.geomorphology.org.uk or www.geomorph.org for further details

• inputs - wind deposition, debris production

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