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1.
The period of direct groundwater storage measurements is often too short to allow reliable inferences of groundwater storage trends at catchment scales. However, as groundwater storage sustains low flows in catchments during dry periods, groundwater storage can also be estimated indirectly from daily streamflow based on hydraulic groundwater theory; this idea was applied herein to 17 selected Australian catchments to examine their long-term (half a century or longer) groundwater storage trends. On average, over past 45 years, groundwater storage exhibited negative trends in all the selected catchments, except in the Katherine River catchment located in the Northern Territory. These negative trends persisted over longer periods, close to 100 years in some catchments and the strongest decreasing trend of 0.241 mm per year was observed in the Barron River catchment in New South Wales. However, groundwater storage exhibited different trends over the different shorter periods. Thus, while during the period of 1997–2007, 15 out of the 17 catchments showed negative trends in groundwater storage, during the period of 1980–2000, 12 out of the 17 catchments exhibited positive trends in groundwater storage; this underscores the fact that record lengths of one or even two decades are inadequate to derive meaningful trends. Strong consistencies in the trends exist across most catchments, indicating that groundwater storage is affected by large-scale climate factors. 相似文献
2.
Hydrological models used for flood prediction in ungauged catchments are commonly fitted to regionally transferred data. The key issue of this procedure is to identify hydrologically similar catchments. Therefore, the dominant controls for the process of interest have to be known. In this study, we applied a new machine learning based approach to identify the catchment characteristics that can be used to identify the active processes controlling runoff dynamics. A random forest (RF) regressor has been trained to estimate the drainage velocity parameters of a geomorphologic instantaneous unit hydrograph (GIUH) in ungauged catchments, based on regionally available data. We analyzed the learning procedure of the algorithm and identified preferred donor catchments for each ungauged catchment. Based on the obtained machine learning results from catchment grouping, a classification scheme for drainage network characteristics has been derived. This classification scheme has been applied in a flood forecasting case study. The results demonstrate that the RF could be trained properly with the selected donor catchments to successfully estimate the required GIUH parameters. Moreover, our results showed that drainage network characteristics can be used to identify the influence of geomorphological dispersion on the dynamics of catchment response. 相似文献
3.
《Journal of Hydrology》2006,316(1-4):213-232
The Magdalena River, a major fluvial system draining most of the Colombian Andes, has the highest sediment yield of any medium-sized or large river in South America. We examined sediment yield and its response to control variables in the Magdalena drainage basin based on a multi-year dataset of sediment loads from 32 tributary catchments. Various morphometric, hydrologic, and climatic variables were estimated in order to understand and predict the variation in sediment yield. Sediment yield varies from 128 to 2200 t km−2 yr−1 for catchments ranging from 320 to 59,600 km2. The mean sediment yield for 32 sub-basins within the Magdalena basin is ∼690 t km−2 yr−1. Mean annual runoff is the dominant control and explains 51% of the observed variance in sediment yield. A multiple regression model, including two control variables, runoff and maximum water discharge, explains 58% of the variance. This model is efficient (ME=0.89) and is a valuable tool for predicting total sediment yield from tributary catchments in the Magdalena basin. Multiple correlations for those basins corresponding to the upper Magdalena, middle basin, Eastern Cordillera, and catchment areas greater than 2000 km2, explain 75, 77, 89, and 78% of the variance in sediment yield, respectively. Although more variance is explained when dataset are grouped into categories, the models are less efficient (ME<0.72). Within the spatially distributed models, six catchment variables predict sediment yield, including runoff, precipitation, precipitation peakedness, mean elevation, mean water discharge, and relief. These estimators are related to the relative importance of climate and weathering, hillslope erosion, and fluvial transport processes. Time series analysis indicates that significant increases in sediment load have occurred over 68% of the catchment area, while 31% have experienced a decreasing trend in sediment load and thus yield. Land use analysis and increasing sediment load trends indicate that erosion within the catchment has increased over the last 10–20 years. 相似文献
4.
Different mechanisms are understood to represent the primary sources of the variance of travel time distribution in natural catchments. To quantify the fraction of variance introduced by each component, dispersion coefficients have been earlier defined in the framework of geomorphology-based rainfall-runoff models. In this paper we compare over a wide range of basin sizes and for a variety of runoff conditions the relative role of geomorphological dispersion, related to the heterogeneity of path lengths, and hillslope kinematic dispersion, generated by flow processes within the hillslopes. Unlike previous works, our approach does not focus on a specific study case; instead, we try to generalize results already obtained in previous literature stemming from the definition of a few significant parameters related to the metrics of the catchment and flow dynamics. We further extend this conceptual framework considering the effects of two additional variance-producing processes: the first covers the random variability of hillslope velocities (i.e. of travel times over hillslopes); the second deals with non-uniform production of runoff over the basin (specifically related to drainage density). Results are useful to clarify the role of hillslope kinematic dispersion and define under which conditions it counteracts or reinforces geomorphological dispersion. We show how its sign is ruled by the specific spatial distribution of hillslope lengths within the basin, as well as by flow conditions. Interestingly, while negative in a wide range of cases, kinematic dispersion is expected to become invariantly positive when the variability of hillslope velocity is large. 相似文献
5.
Flood Events, a Multiple Basin Response to Precipitation Events at Different Scales Results in the small catchment of the Kartelbornsbach have shown that summer events lead to typical types of flood waves that can be classified according to their response patterns. Differences to this pattern are due to the precipitation amount and duration and in some times to the pre-event moisture of the soil. The results show further that the Kartelbornsbach catchment can be considered as a block system where spatial differences are responsible for the basic pattern of the reaction but not for differences between flood events. Small catchments are excellent tools for relatively inexpensive hydrological and hydrochemical research on streamflow generation mechanisms. With increasing size of the basin the response becomes less clear, because the spatial distribution of rainfall and the distance of delivering areas from the sampling station mask or modify the type of response. Although the main flow components may not change, there is a considerable shift in the composition of water quality, because the increase of travel time does not affect all flow components at the same rate. 相似文献
6.
Several studies revealed that peak discharges (Q) observed in a nested drainage network following a runoff-generating rainfall event exhibit power law scaling with respect to drainage area (A) as Q(A) = αAθ. However, multiple aspects of how rainfall-runoff process controls the value of the intercept (α) and the scaling exponent (θ) are not fully understood. We use the rainfall-runoff model CUENCAS and apply it to three different river basins in Iowa to investigate how the interplay among rainfall intensity, duration, hillslope overland flow velocity, channel flow velocity, and the drainage network structure affects these parameters. We show that, for a given catchment: (1) rainfall duration and hillslope overland flow velocity play a dominant role in controlling θ, followed by channel flow velocity and rainfall intensity; (2) α is systematically controlled by the interplay among rainfall intensity, duration, hillslope overland flow velocity, and channel flow velocity, which highlights that it is the combined effect of these factors that controls the exact values of α and θ; and (3) a scale break occurs when runoff generated on hillslopes runs off into the drainage network very rapidly and the scale at which the break happens is determined by the interplay among rainfall duration, hillslope overland flow velocity, and channel flow velocity. 相似文献
7.
This study aimed to improve the understanding of hydrological processes in a humid (sub)tropical area in Africa with Inselberg topography. Additionally, the study intended to develop an approach for selective discharge data acquisition to determine water availability for smallholder irrigation in similar data-scarce catchments. During the December 2012–August 2013 field campaign meteorological and river stage data were collected at the Messica catchment in Central Mozambique. The 220 km2 catchment has an estimated 1000 ha of irrigated land, developed by smallholder farmers. Baseflow in the perennial tributary streams on the slopes of a meta-sedimentary Inselberg is the source of irrigation water. The baseflow recession curve of one of these tributaries is analysed and the water balance of an average year was determined. Precipitation, potential evapotranspiration, actual evapotranspiration and discharge were estimated to be 1224, 1462, 949 and 266 mm/year respectively. Differential gauging showed that the perennial tributaries gain water; the groundwater contribution increased with approximately 50% over two and a half month relative to the downstream discharge from March to May. In the downstream parts the groundwater contribution per metre stream length is between 30% and 100% higher compared to the upstream parts for two of the tributaries. Nevertheless, due to natural streambed infiltration and irrigation canals, discharge varies over the length of these tributaries. A rainfall–runoff model (HBV) was calibrated using the field data to examine the relation between precipitation characteristics and discharge at the start of the dry season. For precipitation scenarios with low and high intensity precipitation, discharges from June onwards were approximately similar in size according to the calibrated model. This suggest that discharge at the start of the dry season is mainly determined by total precipitation and the timing of precipitation (i.e. early or late in the wet season), not by individual rainfall events or rainfall intensity. It is concluded that the use of selective discharge measurements and low frequency precipitation measurements can effectively be used for water availability assessments in Inselberg catchments. Further research should be conducted to verify the validity of the used techniques in other humid sub-tropical Inselberg areas. 相似文献
8.
A geomorphologic kinematic‐wave (GKW) model was developed for simulation of extreme floods from small alpine catchments. The GKW model couples the kinematic‐wave theory and the geomorphologic representation of the catchment based on the Horton–Strahler ordering scheme. The model was tested on two small alpine catchments in Switzerland, and the agreement between simulated and observed floods was good. Care must however be taken with the computation of slope and roughness parameters. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 相似文献
9.
We examined how and why dominant peak-flow runoff-generation mechanisms differ among neighbouring headwater catchments. We monitored runoff and groundwater levels and performed terrain analyses in a granitic second-order catchment and its four neighbouring subcatchments in the Kiryu Experimental Watershed in Japan. Our analysis of lag times from peak rainfall to peak runoff suggests differences in the dominant peak-flow runoff-generation mechanisms among the five catchments. For two of the three zero-order catchments, with few perennial groundwater bodies, subsurface flow from hillslopes was the dominant mechanism at some events. However, the dominant mechanisms were channel precipitation and riparian runoff at almost all events in first- and second-order catchments and in the third zero-order catchment, which has a large perennial groundwater body over a bedrock depression in the riparian zone. In this zero-order catchment, the quick-flow ratio was the smallest of the five catchments because subsurface flow from the hillslope was buffered at the riparian zone. These facts suggest that the channel length, riparian buffering, and hillslope connectivity were the factors governing the different dominant peak-flow runoff-generation mechanisms among the catchments. Riparian buffering was affected, not only by surface topography, but also by bedrock topography and bedrock groundwater (BGW) dynamics. Our findings indicate that both of BGW dynamics and topography are important for catchment classification, and the relative importance of topography increases with the change from baseflow to stormflow. Furthermore, mismatching between a geographic source and a flow path resulted in different catchment classifications depending on the approach. Therefore, multiple approaches during both baseflow and stormflow periods are necessary for catchment classification to apply information obtained from one headwater catchment to other headwater catchments within the same region. 相似文献
10.
Our study summarizes data from six small water reservoirs in West Slovakia and analyzes the occurrence of zooplankton groups in relation to physico-chemical and catchment variables. The reservoirs are in two different catchments – of the Morava and Váh rivers. A total of 103 species were identified; 64 crustaceans (in both the pelagic and littoral zones) and 39 planktonic Rotifera in the pelagic zones. Significant differences were observed in species richness, abundance and biomass of planktonic crustaceans: 48 species were characteristic of the Váh catchment, while 53 were found in the Morava catchment. The density of zooplankton in the three reservoirs of the Váh River catchment ranged from 102 ind L?1 to 21,488 ind L?1 and the zooplankton biomass ranged from 0.12 mg L?1 to 103.29 mg L?1. The density of zooplankton in three Morava River catchment reservoirs ranged from 2 ind L?1 to 3928 ind L?1 and the zooplankton biomass ranged from 0.1 mg L?1 to 27.3 mg L?1. The differences were found to be related to catchment (altitude and catchment affiliation), chemical (BOD5, DO) and biological (Chromophyta, Chlorophyta) factors. Eutrophication of reservoirs in the Váh catchment was mainly due to agriculture and fish management, resulting in high nutrient concentrations. Species richness showed an unimodal response to BOD5 and N-NH4 with near optimum low values, 4.6 and 0.19 respectively. The relationship to oxygen content reflects preferences for less eutrophic waters and species richness tended to decrease with increasing DO and to decrease with increasing nutrient content. 相似文献
11.
Attempts to reduce the number of parameters in distributed rainfall–runoff models have not yet resulted in a model that is accurate for both natural and anthropogenic hillslopes. We take on the challenge by proposing a distributed model for overland flow and channel flow based on a combination of a linear response time distribution and the hillslope geomorphologic instantaneous unit hydrograph (GIUH), which can be calculated with only a digital elevation model and a map with field boundaries and channel network as input. The spatial domain is subdivided into representative elementary hillslopes (REHs) for each of which we define geometric and flow velocity parameters and compute the GIUH. The catchment GIUH is given by the sum of all REH responses. While most distributed models only perform well on natural hillslopes, the advantage of our approach is that it can also be applied to modified hillslopes with for example a rectangular drainage network and terrace cultivation. Tests show that the REH‐GIUH approach performs better than classical routing functions (exponential and gamma). Simulations of four virtual hillslopes suggest that peak flow at the catchment outlet is directly related to drainage density. By combining the distributed flow routing model with a lumped‐parameter infiltration model, we were also able to demonstrate that terrace cultivation delays the response time and reduces peak flow in comparison to the same hillslope, but with a natural stream network. The REH‐GIUH approach is a first step in the process of coupling distributed hydrological models to erosion and water quality models at the REH (associated with agricultural management) and at the catchment scale (associated with the evaluation of the environmental impact of human activities). It furthermore provides a basis for the development of models for large catchments and urban or peri‐urban catchments. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 相似文献
12.
Data on performance of a geomorphologic rainfall-runoff model in simulating observed flash flood hydrographs in 32 arid catchments have been analysed. The catchments, which are located in the southwest region of Saudi Arabia, vary in their size, slope of land, and characteristics of soils, and are in zones of different rainstorm characteristics. The sensitivity of the model accuracy with various catchment and rainfall characteristics has been investigated. Size, followed by rate of infiltration and slope of land, are the most effective catchment characteristics affecting the accuracy. In addition, the accuracy varies with spatial and temporal rainfall variation, total rainfall depth, and length of the dry period between two successive rainstorms over catchment. It is sensitive to temporal rainfall variation more than spatial rainfall variation, and to the dry period more than total rainfall depth. Generally, the model did not display an accuracy approaching that of the observations, especially in simulating peak flowrates in large size infiltrating catchments having high temporal rainstorm variation. Guidelines on the best use of the model in arid catchments were proposed. 相似文献
13.
《Advances in water resources》2005,28(2):99-115
Relationships describing response times for landscape saturation and subsurface flow for idealised hillslopes after a change in water balance are derived in terms of similarity parameters given by their topographic, soil and climatic attributes. The study was carried out under a set of specific assumptions.The work quantitatively describes effects of each of these attributes on travel time. For example, divergent hillslopes can exhibit travel times that are double those of convergent hillslopes, and concave slopes tend to have lower travel times than planar or convex slopes. It is shown that the hillslope travel time T is dependent on hillslope length L, hydraulic conductivity K and slope S such that T = f(L/KS, B, CR, Δq/smd) and if saturation does not occur in the lower reaches of a hillslope, this can be simplified to T = f(L/KS, B). Here, Δq is change in net external flux and smd is soil moisture deficit; CR and B are the convergence ratio and profile factor respectively. The relative importance of these attributes on response time is discussed.It is shown that subsurface flow hydrographs of simple hillslopes of different scale, derived numerically, can be collapsed into a single curve by normalising them by means of a form of response time, the time constant.Results from the analytical derivation were compared with numerical analysis with good agreement. The theory was applied to a natural catchment using observed data from a bushfire event. Comparison of analytically calculated response time with observed response time for the event showed a large discrepancy. The reason is discussed. 相似文献
14.
《Limnologica》2017
The conversion of forests into agriculture has been identified as a key process for stream homogenization. However, the effects of this conversion can be scale-dependent. In this context, our aim was to identify the influence of different land uses at different spatial scales (catchment, drainage network and local) on instream features in agricultural streams. We defined six classes of land use: native forest, reforestation, herbaceous and shrubs, pasture, sugarcane and other categories. We obtained 22 variables related to instream, riparian area, stream morphology and water physicochemical characteristics in 86 stream reaches. To identify and isolate the effect of different land uses at different spatial scales on instream features, we performed a partial redundancy analysis (p-RDA). Different land uses and scales influenced instream features and defined two stream groups: (i) homogeneous streams with a higher proportion of sand substrate and instream grasses that were associated with the proportion of herbaceous vegetation at the local scale and with pasture at all scales and (ii) heterogeneous streams with a higher physical habitat integrity associated with the proportion of forest and sugarcane at the local and catchment scales. Land use at the catchment scale affected the physicochemical water properties and stream morphology, whereas stream physical habitat (i.e., substrate, instream cover, marginal vegetation and stream physical habitat condition) was mainly influenced by land use at the local scale (i.e., 150 m radius). Pure catchment, drainage network and local land uses explained 9%, 7% and 4%, respectively, of the total variation of instream features. Thus, to be most effective, stream conservation and restoration efforts should not be limited to only one scale. 相似文献
15.
Storm runoff response to rainfall pattern,magnitude and urbanization in a developing urban catchment 总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1 
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下载免费PDF全文 This study explored the hydrological impacts of urbanization, rainfall pattern and magnitude in a developing catchment. The Stormwater Management Model was parameterized, calibrated and validated in three development phases, which had the same catchment area (12.3 ha) but different land use intensities. The model calibration and validation by using sub‐hourly hydro‐meteorological data demonstrated a good performance of the model in predicting stormwater runoff in the different development phases. Based on the results, a threshold between minor and major rainfall events was identified and conservatively determined to be about 17.5 mm in depth. Direct runoff for minor storm events has a linear relationship with rainfall; however, events with a rainfall depth greater than the threshold yield a rainfall–runoff regression line with a clearly steeper slope. The difference in urban runoff generation between minor and major rainfall events diminishes with the increase of imperviousness. Urbanization leads to an increase in the production of stormwater runoff, but during infrequent major storms, the runoff contribution from pervious surfaces reduces the runoff changes owing to urbanization. Rainfall pattern exerts an important effect on urban runoff, which is reflected in pervious runoff. With the same magnitude, prolonged rainfall events with unvarying low intensity yield the smallest peak flow and the smallest total runoff, yet rainfall events with high peak intensity produce the largest runoff volume. These results demonstrate the different roles of impervious and pervious surfaces in runoff generation, and how runoff responds to rainstorms in urban catchments depends on hyetograph and event magnitude. Furthermore, the study provides a scientific basis of the design guideline sustainable urban drainage systems, which are still arbitrary in many countries. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 相似文献
16.
Jason A. Leach James M. Buttle Kara L. Webster Paul W. Hazlett Dean S. Jeffries 《水文研究》2020,34(10):2154-2175
The time it takes water to travel through a catchment, from when it enters as rain and snow to when it leaves as streamflow, may influence stream water quality and catchment sensitivity to environmental change. Most studies that estimate travel times do so for only a few, often rain-dominated, catchments in a region and use relatively short data records (<10 years). A better understanding of how catchment travel times vary across a landscape may help diagnose inter-catchment differences in water quality and response to environmental change. We used comprehensive and long-term observations from the Turkey Lakes Watershed Study in central Ontario to estimate water travel times for 12 snowmelt-dominated headwater catchments, three of which were impacted by forest harvesting. Chloride, a commonly used water tracer, was measured in streams, rain, snowfall and as dry atmospheric deposition over a 31 year period. These data were used with a lumped convolution integral approach to estimate mean water travel times. We explored relationships between travel times and catchment characteristics such as catchment area, slope angle, flowpath length, runoff ratio and wetland coverage, as well as the impact of harvesting. Travel time estimates were then used to compare differences in stream water quality between catchments. Our results show that mean travel times can be variable for small geographic areas and are related to catchment characteristics, in particular flowpath length and wetland cover. In addition, forest harvesting appeared to decrease mean travel times. Estimated mean travel times had complex relationships with water quality patterns. Results suggest that biogeochemical processes, particularly those present in wetlands, may have a greater influence on water quality than catchment travel times. 相似文献
17.
Ian Cartwright Uwe Morgenstern William Howcroft Harald Hofmann Robin Armit Michael Stewart Chad Burton Dylan Irvine 《水文研究》2020,34(21):4034-4048
Determining mean transit times in headwater catchments is critical for understanding catchment functioning and understanding their responses to changes in landuse or climate. Determining whether mean transit times (MTTs) correlate with drainage density, slope angle, area, or land cover permits a better understanding of the controls on water flow through catchments and allows first-order predictions of MTTs in other catchments to be made. This study assesses whether there are identifiable controls on MTTs determined using 3H in headwater catchments of southeast Australia. Despite MTTs at baseflow varying from a few years to >100 years, it was difficult to predict MTTs using single or groups of readily-measured catchment attributes. The lack of readily-identifiable correlations hampers the prediction of MTTs in adjacent catchments even where these have similar geology, land use, and topography. The long MTTs of the Australian headwater catchments are probably in part due to the catchments having high storage volumes in deeply-weathered regolith, combined with low recharge rates due to high evapotranspiration. However, the difficulty in estimating storage volumes at the catchment scale hampers the use of this parameter to estimate MTTs. The runoff coefficient (the fraction of rainfall exported via the stream) is probably also controlled by evapotranspiration and recharge rates. Correlations between the runoff coefficient and MTTs in individual catchments allow predictions of MTTs in nearby catchments to be made. MTTs are shorter in high rainfall periods as the catchments wet up and shallow water stores are mobilized. Despite the contribution of younger water, the major ion geochemistry in individual catchments commonly does not correlate with MTTs, probably reflecting heterogeneous reactions and varying degrees of evapotranspiration. Documenting MTTs in catchments with high storage volumes and/or low recharge rates elsewhere is important for understanding MTTs in diverse environments. 相似文献
18.
Sixteen small catchments in the Maroondah region of Victoria, Australia were analysed using rainfall, temperature and streamflow time series with a rainfall–runoff model whose parameters efficiently characterize the hydrological response of a catchment. A set of catchment attributes for each of these catchments was then compared with the associated set of hydrological response characteristics of the catchments as estimated by the model. The time constant governing quickflow recession of streamflow (τq) was related to the drainage network and catchment area. The time constant governing slowflow recession of streamflow (τs) was related to the slope and shape of the catchment. The parameter governing evapotranspirative losses ( f ) was related to catchment gradient and vegetative water use. Forestry activities in the catchments changed evapotranspirative losses and thus total volume of streamflow, but did not affect the rate of streamflow recession. 相似文献
19.
Rainfall-triggered lahars at Volcán de Colima,Mexico: Surface hydro-repellency as initiation process
L. Capra L. Borselli N. Varley J.C. Gavilanes-Ruiz G. Norini D. Sarocchi L. Caballero A. Cortes 《Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research》2010,189(1-2):105-117
Volcán de Colima is currently the most active volcano in Mexico. Since 1998 intermittent activity has been observed with vulcanian eruptions, lava flows and growing domes that have collapsed producing several block-and-ash flow deposits. During the period of heightened activity since 1998 at Volcán de Colima, pyroclastic flows from dome or column collapse have not reached long distances, most of the time less than 6 km from the crater. In contrast, rain-induced lahars were more frequent and have reached relatively long distances, up to 15 km, causing damage to infrastructure and affecting small villages. In 2007 two rain gauge stations were installed on the southern flank of the volcano registering events from June through to October, the period when rains are intense and lahars frequent. By comparing lahar frequency with rainfall intensity and the rainfall accumulated during the previous 3 days, lahars more frequently occur at the beginning of the rainfall season, with low rain accumulation (< 10 mm) and triggered by low rain intensities (< 20 mm/h). During the months with more rainfall (July and August) lahars are less frequent and higher peak intensities (up to 70 mm/h) are needed to trigger an event. In both cases, lahars were initiated as dilute, sediment-laden streamflows, which transformed with entrainment of additional sediment into hyperconcentrated and debris flows, with alternations between these two flow types. A hydro-repellency mechanism in highly vegetated areas (i.e. evergreen tree types with considerable amount of resins and waxes such as pines) with sandy soils can probably explain the high frequency of lahars at the beginning of the rain season during low rainfall events. Under hydrophobic conditions, infiltration is inhibited and runoff is facilitated at more highly peaked discharges that are more likely to initiate lahars. 相似文献
20.
The intermontane Ronda Basin, currently located in the Western Betics External Zones, started as an embayment of the Betic foreland basin during the Tortonian. We have characterized a post-Serravallian, basin-related deformation event that overprinted the former fold-and-thrust belt. Updated structural and kinematic maps allow us to identify NW–SE basinward-dipping normal faults at the southwestern and northeastern boundaries of the basin and NE–SW shortening structures (large-scale folds and reverse faults) affecting both the outcropping basement and partially the basin infill. In order to test the possible tectonic activity of these structures during the last 5 Ma, exhaustive geomorphologic analyses in the Ronda Basin area have been done. This included the qualitative study of relief and drainage network, together with the characterization of quantitative indices (SLk, Smf, Vf and HI). These results obtained from this analysis are coherent with structural data and suggest that the identified post-Serravallian structures were active up to at least 5 Ma. We also conclude that the Ronda Basin was generated by along strike segmentation of the relief in the Western Betics induced by NE–SW (arc-parallel) stretching accompanied with NW–SE shortening. In the NW basin boundary, the strain was partitioned into ENE–WSW dextral strike-slip faults and NE–SW shortening structures, which gave rise to a Messinian transpressive structural high that disconnected the former Ronda Basin from its parental foreland basin. 相似文献