REFLECTION OF THE QUANTITATIVE DYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF EXOGENOUS PROCESSES IN METRICS OF LANDSCAPE MORPHOLOGICAL PATTERNS 

A. S. Victorov^1,*, T. V. Orlov¹, V. N. Kapralova¹

¹Sergeev Institute of Environmental Geoscience, Russian Academy of Sciences,
Ulanskii per.,13, str. 2, Moscow, 101000 Russia

*E-mail: dist@geoenv.ru 

Many researchers studied relationships between the characteristics of the processes occurring in a landscape and its modern state aimed at the process indication, engineering-geological research, and various landscape studies. The problem of reflecting processes in the external view of landscapes was posed and solved, but its quantitative aspect as a rule was not studied. The purpose of this paper is to show the relationship between the dynamic characteristics of exogenous geological processes and the quantitative characteristics of the landscape morphological pattern (landscape metrics), taking a single time slice, including their determining factors. As an example of our approach, the research involves one of the most widespread landscapes of the permafrost zone, i.e., thermokarst plains with fluvial erosion. The solution to this problem is obtained based on the mathematical morphology of landscapes and the mathematical models of the morphological pattern. The mathematical models of the morphological patterns reveal the interrelationships between the quantitative parameters of the thermokarst process dynamics within the thermokarst plains with fluvial erosion, such as the ratios between the generation rate and the size growth rate of thermokarst depressions reflected in the quantitative parameters of morphological patterns. Using the up-to-date landscape metrics, we obtained specific expressions for the dynamic parameters of thermokarst process, which, in fact, are the quantitative indicators of the dynamic parameters. The resulting conclusion was initially tested by determining the considered parameter in two different ways. The obtained relationships are universal for the considered landscape, i.e., the thermokarst plains with fluvial erosion; however, they depend on the process peculiarities (e.g., synchronous or asynchronous start). The obtained relationships can help us to determine the dynamic parameters of processes necessary for risk forecasting and assessing without stationary observations.

This research was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, project no. 18-05-00723.

Keywords: mathematic morphology of landscape, mathematic models of morphological structures, landscape, erosional thermokarst plain, indication and reflection of processes

REFERENCES

1. Victorov, A.S. Matematicheskaya morfologiya landshafta [Mathematical morphology of landscapes]. Moscow, Tratek Publ., 1998, 191 p. (in Russian)

2.       Victorov, A.S., Kapralova, V.N., Orlov, T.V., Trapeznikova, O.N., et al. Matematicheskaya morfologiya landshaftov kriolitozony [Mathematical morphology of permafrost landscapes]. Moscow, RUDN Publ., 2016, 232 p. (in Russian)

3.       Victorov, A.S., Trapeznikova, O.N., Orlov, T.V., Sadkov, S.A. Ispol'zovanie podkhodov matematicheskoi morfologii landshafta pri distantsionnoi otsenke prirodnykh opasnostei [Using approaches of mathematical morphology of the landscape for remote assessment of natural hazards].Geoekologiya, 2019, no. 5, pp. 61-73. (in Russian)

4.       Victorov, S.V., Ilyushina, M.T., Kuz'mina, I.V.  Ekologo-geneticheskie ryady rastitel'nykh soobshchestv kak indikatory prirodnykh protsessov [Ecological and genetic series of plant communities as indicators of natural processes]. Ecologia, 1970, no. 6, pp. 88-94. (in Russian)

5.       Metodicheskoye rukovodstvo po inzhenerno-geologicheskoi s'emke masshtaba 1:200000 (1:100000, 1:50000) [Methodical guide for engineering geological survey to a scale of 1: 200000 (1: 100000, 1:50000)]. Moscow, Nedra Publ., 1978, 391p. (in Russian)

6.       Sadov, A.V., Revzon, A.L., Chalidze, F.N. Izucheniye ekzogennykh protsessov v raionakh krupnykh vodokhranilishch aerolandshaftnym metodom [Study of exogenous processes in the areas of large reservoirs by the aerolandscape method]. Moscow, Nedra Publ., 1976. 49 p. (in Russian)

7.       Landscape patterns in a range of spatio-temporal scales. Khoroshev, A.V., Dyakonov, K.N., Eds., Springer, 2020, 439 p.

8.       Ritters, K.H., O'Neill, R.V., Hunsaker, C.T., et al. A factor of landscape pattern and structure metrics. Landscape Ecology, 1995, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 23-39.

9.       Victorov, A. Mathematical model of thermokarst and fluvial erosion plains. GIS and Spatial Analysis, Toronto. 2005, vol. 1, pp. 62-67.