ABSTRACT
From the ground one sees relief features, such as hillslopes, valley sides and scarps. From the air one sees rivers and drainage networks. In many areas the drainage networks are the dominant landscape feature. They are the arteries that move water and sediment through the fluvial system. With the advent of aerial photography and quantitative procedures for documenting landform characteristics (Horton 1945), it is no wonder that the drainage network and especially drainage density became a topic of great interest to geomorphologists and hydrologists. As a principal component of the landscape that could be investigated using maps and aerial photographs, drainage density (the ratio of total channel length to drainage area) was the subject of numerous studies. It was believed that if the independent variables that control drainage density could be related quantitatively to it, the results would be of great academic interest and of practical value. For example, it could lead to a quantitative climatic geomorphology.
