ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates hillslopes. It begins by considering the nature of hillslopes, including bare and soil-mantled varieties, and then moves on to hillslope transport processes and hillslope development. It examines hillslope processes: mass movements (fall, topple, slide, spread, flow, slope deformation, and subsidence), surface transport processes (rainsplash, rainflow, and sheet wash), and subsurface transport processes (leaching, through-wash, and mixing by organisms or bioturbation). It makes a distinction between transport-limited processes, such as creep and rainsplash, and supply-limited processes, such as solute leaching and debris avalanching, noting that hillslopes with transport limitations tend to carry a thick soil mantle with their slopes declining with time, while hillslopes limited by the supply of material through weathering tend to be bare or have thin soil with their slopes retreating at a constant angle. The chapter then shows how mathematical models provide a means of probing long-term hillslope development, going on to consider slope units and slope properties and their classifications. A final section examines the human impact on hillslopes, and in particular hillslope erosion.
