THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE WATER DISCHARGES AND A SERIES OF MORPHOMETRIC PARAMETERS OF THE BASINS AND THE HYDROGRAPHIC NETWORK

Ion Zăvoianu, Faculty of Geography, Spiru Harett University, Romania

Abstract

The evaluation of the multiannual average water discharges using indirect methods is a requirement because of the fact that there are many areas with a reduced network of water gauges for which the assessment of the water discharges by direct methods is very difficult. In order to find functional dependency among a series of morphometric parameters of the hydrographic basins and river network we have started form the idea that a series of relations between the agent and the form it creates must exist. To verify the above we took as a case study the Barlad basin and we have correlated the water discharges with the respective basin surfaces, with the medium altitude and the geological resistance in logarithmical coordinates and we have found good relationships. To verify if among the water discharges, the number and the total length of the stream segments classified in the Horton-Strahler system a relationship exists, we have determined the drainage pattern using the law of the river segment’s number and their length on size ranges and then as a total for the entire basin. In case of Barlad basin we have obtained good quantitative relationships favoured by a small differentiation of the geographical conditions generating the water discharges. To verify if these relationships can be used for the entire Romanian territory, we have calculated the morphometric elements for a set of representative basins form different relief units, including the number and the length of the river segments in the Horton-Strahler classification system. In this case also, the correlation of the values in logarithmical coordinates points out obvious relationships, but the disposal degree of the values infers the fact that a third variable or a group of variables that hall-marks the configuration of the obtained relationships interferes.         

Keywords: water discharge, morphometric parameters, basins, river network