GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 37, L24403, doi:10.
1029/2010GL045415, 2010
Geomorphological origin of recession curves
Basudev Biswal1 and Marco Marani1
Received 9 September 2010; accepted 14 October 2010; published 18 December 2010.
[1] We identify a previously undetected link between the
river network morphology and key recession curves
properties through a conceptual‐physical model of the
drainage process of the riparian unconfined aquifer. We
show that the power‐law exponent, a, of −dQ/dt vs. Q
curves is related to the power‐law exponent of N(l) vs.
G(l) curves (which we show to be connected to Hack’s
law), where l is the downstream distance from the
channel heads, N(l) is the number of channel reaches
exactly located at a distance l from their channel head,
and G(l) is the total length of the network located at a
distance greater or equal to l from channel heads. Using
Digital Terrain Models and daily discharge observations
from 67 US basins we find that geomorphologic a
estimates match well the values obtained from recession
curves analyses. Finally, we argue that the link between
recession flows and network morphology points to an
important role of low‐flow discharges in shaping the
channel network. Citation: Biswal, B., and M. Marani
(2010), Geomorphological origin of recession curves, Geophys.
Res. Lett., 37, L24403, doi:10.1029/2010GL045415.
1. Introduction
[2] River networks exhibit remarkable morphological and
structural similarities, which can be expressed quantitatively
through traditional and fractal geometry [Horton, 1945;
Hack, 1957; Marani et al., 1994; Rodríguez‐Iturbe and
Rinaldo, 1997]. One intriguing and important question is
how the spatial organization of river networks is reflected in
the hydrologic response to rainfall inputs. The geomorpho-
logical theory of the hydrologic response [Kirkby, 1976;
Rodríguez‐Iturbe and Valdés, 1979; Rinaldo and
Rodríguez‐Iturbe, 1996] links the geomorphological prop-
erties of the hillslope‐network system and its responses [e.
g., Rinaldo et al., 2006a, 2006b], but requires the complete
specification of travel times for the local groundwater flows
in order to deal with recession hydrographs. In fact, to our
knowledge, few contributions have attempted to connect
recession hydrographs and the morphological features of the
drainage network producing it [Marani et al., 2001; Vivoni
et al., 2008], even though recession curves have long been
studied [e.g., Brutsaert and Nieber, 1977].
[3] Through a simple model of the drainage process and
discharge observations from 67 US basins we provide here
evidence that key properties of low‐flow regimes are
determined by the time‐varying geometry of saturated
channelled sites.
1
Dipartimento IMAGE and International Centre for Hydrology
“Dino Tonini,” Università di Padova, Padua, Italy.
Copyright 2010 by the American Geophysical Union.
0094‐8276/10/2010GL045415
L24403
2. Active Drainage Network and the Source
Function
[4] We assume that the recession hydrograph at an outlet
is dominated by drainage of the unconfined aquifer by the
channel network instantaneously intersecting it, the Active
Drainage Network (ADN). ADN geometry varies over time
because drainage of the aquifer produces the progressive
‘desaturation’ of the ephemeral low‐order streams (see
Figure 1).
[5] Within this conceptual framework we make the fol-
lowing assumptions:
[6] 1. The recession flow varies slowly in time and can be
described through a succession of steady states. The total
discharge at the outlet, Q(t), is thus equal to the total
drainage discharge delivered by the aquifer to the network
(i.e., propagation effects along the network are negligible):
Qðt Þ ¼ q  GðtÞ ð1Þ
where G(t) is the total length of the ADN and q is the dis-
charge per unit length drained by the ADN;
[7] 2. q is spatially constant.
[8] 3. The rate at which source links recede, c = dl/dt, is
constant in space and time (a source link is defined as a
saturated link with no upstream saturated links).
[9] Under these assumptions one finds:
dQ dG dq dq
¼q þ  Gðt Þ ¼ qc  N ðtÞ þ  GðtÞ; ð2Þ
dt dt dt dt
where N(t) is the number of channel sources in the ADN
configuration at time t (see Figure 1). The last equality in
equation (2) recognizes that the rate of change of the total
ADN length, dG/dt, is equal to the rate at which individual
saturated source links recede, multiplied by the number of
source links in the current ADN configuration. dQ/dt in the
recession phase thus depends both on N(t), controlled by
the desaturation of channel reaches, and on dq/dt, con-
trolled by aquifer depletion. One can now envision two
end‐member cases. In the first case dQ/dt is dominated by
the rate of change of the ADN length (likely to occur in
sloping basins). In the second case dQ/dt is dominated by
the rate of change of q (more likely to happen in relatively
flat basins). Brutsaert and Nieber [1977] focus their
attention on this latter case, and study the time dependence
of dq/dt in a non‐sloping channel. Here we focus on the
time dynamics of the ADN and make the following
assumption:
[10] There exists a regime in the recession phase in which
the geometry of the ADN varies quickly, such that the term
in dq/dt can be neglected and equation (2) becomes:
dQ=dt ¼ qc  N ðtÞ ð3Þ
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L24403 BISWAL AND MARANI: GEOMORPHOLOGICAL RECESSION CURVES
Figure 1. Idealized recession process. Source streams are
indicated with closed circles. Solid lines represent active
streams, dotted lines represent dry streams.
If the recession phase starts at t0, an arbitrary channel seg-
ment in the initial ADN contributes to the recession flow for
a time interval t = t − t0 which is directly proportional to the
distance, l, separating the segment considered from the
farthest upstream source: t − t0 = l/c. Because of this cor-
respondence between time and length along the network we
can trade time for length, such that G(l) is the total length of
the ADN at a distance greater or equal to l downstream of
the sources of the initial ADN configuration. N(l), here
termed the Source Function, is defined as the number of
sites located at a distance l from the sources of the initial
ADN configuration (see Figure 1, top). At time t one thus
finds:
Qðt Þ ¼ q  G ½ l ðt Þ
ð4Þ
dQ
¼ qc  N ½l ðtÞ
dt
Equations (4) link network morphology to recession curve
properties and can be tested by studying −dQ/dt as a func-
tion of Q. One generally finds a power‐law relation of
Brutsaert and Nieber [1977]:
dQ
 ¼ kQ ð5Þ
dt
This is typically justified by assuming a power‐law relation
between the volume of water stored within the aquifer, V,
and discharge: V / Qb. In fact, upon consideration of the
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L24403
continuity equation dV/dt = −Q, one readily finds equation
(5) with a = 2 − b [Kirchner, 2009]. Equations (4) sug-
gest, on the other hand, that the form of the observed −dQ/dt
vs. Q curves can be traced to the underlying geomorpho-
logic relation N(l) vs. G(l). In fact, because of (4), equation
(5) holds if:
N ðl Þ / G ðl Þ g ð6Þ
with ag = a. Relations (5) and (6) reveal the geomorphic
origin of recession curves.
3. Observational and Geomorphic Recession
Curves
[11] We use daily average discharge data obtained from
USGS for a set of 67 basins in the U.S. sampling a wide
variety of different areas, relief, soil type and use. We note
that the daily resolution is appropriate for the present scopes
as we are here interested in recession curves, i.e in time-
scales of the order of several days. Following Brutsaert and
Nieber [1977], we plot −dQ/dt ≈ −(Qi − Qi−1)/Dt vs. Q ≈ (Qi
+ Qi−1)/2, where Dt = 1 day. We discard winter observations
(December to February), to avoid mixing snow‐melt and
aquifer contributions, and consider as recession curves only
periods of monotonically decreasing streamflow lasting at
least 5 days (but experiments with different thresholds
above 5 days yielded very similar results). We also consider
only recessions occurring after discharge peak values larger
than the average discharge of the stream, to avoid consid-
ering minor events which may not have significantly
increased the average soil saturation, thus not triggering a
significant response of the groundwater. −dQ/dt vs. Q plots
(see Figure 2a for a representative example: Paluxy basin −
TX − drainge area = 1062 Km2) exhibit different regimes.
Relatively high values of Q (A–B in Figure 2a) correspond
to parts of the hydrograph with considerable contributions
from surface processes. The relation between dQ/dt and Q is
not one‐to‐one, as may be expected in the case of fast, non‐
stationary, surface flows. Only for slightly lower discharge
values (B–C) we observe a scaling behaviour of −dQ/dt vs.
Q. We interpret this regime (which is present in all hydro-
graphs analyzed from all the basins considered) as the result
of the dominance of drainage processes through the ADN.
For increasingly smaller values of Q (C–D) the hydrographs
tend to be quite ‘flat’, which we interpret as being connected
with a decrease in drained discharge per unit length (q) due
to the depletion of the aquifer (rather than to changes in the
geometry of the ADN). Interestingly, the observed exponent
in −dQ/dt vs. Q curves (a in equation (5)) remains fairly
constant in the intermediate scaling regime across a large
number of different events for the same basin (Figure 2b).
However, the curves for different events tend to be shifted,
such that, for a given value of Q, more intense events
(characterized by large peak discharges, on the right in
Figure 2b) exhibit a smaller value of −dQ/dt with respect to
less intense events. This finding strongly suggests that the
one‐to‐one relation V / Qb, assumed in previous studies to
justify equation (5) [e.g., Tague and Grant, 2004; Kirchner,
2009], does not hold. Furthermore, the simultaneous fit of
the observations from all hydrographs produces a severe
underestimation of the actual value of a characterizing indi-
vidual recession hydrographs (thin solid line in Figure 2b).
L24403 BISWAL AND MARANI: GEOMORPHOLOGICAL RECESSION CURVES L24403

in Figure 3a)) and an ADN including just the main channel

Figure 2. (a) A sample recession curve for the Paluxy
basin. Different regimes are shown as AB, BC and CD.
(b) BC portions of recession curves for selected representa-
tive hydrographs and their trend lines (a varies between
2.05 and 2.28). The solid thin line is the, very different,
trend line (slope = 1.19) obtained by fitting all data points
simultaneously. (c) Frequency distribution of a values com-
puted from all hydrographs for the Paluxy basin.
branches (C in Figure 3a). The transition toward the scaling
regime (B in Figure 3a) may be interpreted as the sign of a
transition from unchannelled (hillslope) to channelled sites.
It is indeed quite remarkable that an intermediate scaling
regime is present in all cases analyzed (see Figure 3b, for a
representative sample) as hypothesized in equation (6). The
resulting scaling exponents are summarized in Table S1 of
the auxiliary material for the entire set of available basins.
[13] If the exponent of the geomorphic recession curve, ag,
corresponds to the exponent derived from observed recession
curves, ao, the widely observed relation (5) can now be
justified purely in terms of the geomorphic properties of the
channel network, without the need of a one‐to‐one relation
between discharge and water volume stored in the basin. We
thus study a ag vs. ao plot (Figure 4), which allows a detailed
comparison of geomorphological and recession‐flow ex-
ponents. We separately analyze basins which are relatively
steep (based on DTM relief and by locating forested areas in
satellite images) and do not have significant reservoirs
(which largely control recession discharge values) and the
remaining basins. Figure 4 supports the conclusion that
ag ≈ ao for relatively steep basins. Basins with modest relief
do not show such a correlation, suggesting that, in this case,
dQ/dt may be dominated by the term in dq/dt in equation (2).
The mean of the frequency distribution of the residuals
ao − ag obtained for the ‘steep’ basins (see inset in Figure 4
and Table S1 of the auxiliary material) is quite small (mean
error = −0.19, standard deviation of the error = 0.20, the
standard deviation of ao being 0.18), further supporting a

The estimation of the scaling exponent must, on the con-

trary, be performed by separately analyzing each available
hydrograph to produce a frequency distribution of observed
a values. Figure 2c illustrates the outcome of such a pro-
cedure applied to 336 events for the Paluxy basin. Mean,
median and standard deviation of the distributions obtained
for a significant number of hydrographs (between 22 and
468) for the entire dataset are shown in Table S1 of the
auxiliary material.1
[12] We then analyzed the DTM’s (30 m resolution) for
all the 67 basins considered and extracted the drainage
networks using flow accumulation thresholds [O’Callaghan
and Mark, 1984]. We also experimented with different
delineation criteria (e.g., thresholds on upstream distance to
the source, on cumulated area plus concavity condition, and
the area‐slope criterion [Tarboton et al., 1991]) with no
appreciable difference in the results that follow. For each
pixel in the extracted channel network the length, l, to the
farthest source is computed to construct N(l) and G(l).
Plotting N(l) vs. G(l) (Figure 3a) shows a distinct scaling
regime, corresponding to ADN configurations which are
Figure 3. (a) Geomorphic recession curves of the Paluxy
intermediate between the fully saturated condition (l = 0, A
basin with flow accumulation threshold (FA = 1 open cir-
cles; FA = 100 triangles). N(l) vs. G(l) curves for the two
1
Auxiliary materials are available in the HTML. doi:10.1029/ cases are indistinguishable. (b) Geomorphic recession
2010GL045415. curves of representative basins extracted from the dataset.
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L24403 BISWAL AND MARANI: GEOMORPHOLOGICAL RECESSION CURVES
Figure 4. ag vs. ao. Black circles refer to sloping basins
and show a good agreement between geomorphic and reces-
sion curve exponents. Gray, smaller, circles refer to flat
basins, which exhibit a lack of correlation between ag and
ao, likely because dQ/dt is in this case dominated by dq/dt
rather than by changes in the ADN length. The inset shows
the frequency distribution of the residuals, ao − ag, between
hydrograph‐derived recession curve scaling exponents and
their geomorphic estimates for the sloping basins.
good agreement between the exponent obtained from
recession curves and its geomorphic estimates.
4. Universal Properties of Recession Curves:
Hack’s Exponent
[14] The geomorphic power‐law relation (6) can be linked
to Hack’s law, expressing the distance from the outlet to the
divide as a function of the basin area: l / Ah. h is Hack’s
exponent [Rigon et al., 1996]). The total length of the ADN,
G(l), for a given configuration indexed by a value l, can be
expressed as the total length of the stream network at full
saturation, L = G(0), multiplied by the probability, P(L > l),
that a site chosen at random within the network exhibit a
distance to the divide, L, larger than l:
Qðlðt ÞÞ / Gðl Þ ¼ L  PðL > l Þ ð7Þ
The probability distribution P(L > l) is known to be power‐
law over a large range of scales, where P(L > l) / l −g [e.g.,
Rigon et al., 1996]. Therefore, Q / l −g and, because l = c(t −
þ1
t0), −dQ −(g+1)
dt / l , such that −dQ
dt / Q . Comparing this latter

relationship with equation (5) yields:
þ1
¼ ð8Þ

Rigon et al. [1996] show that g = b/h, where:
P½ A > a / a ð9Þ
P[A > a] is the probability that the contributing area A at a
point in a drainage network exceed an arbitrary value a.
Finally, considering that h + b = 1 [Maritan et al., 1996], we
find:
1 that the incision of the channel network may be due, to a
¼ ð10Þ
1h
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L24403
Interestingly, the value of Hack’s exponent obtained from
(10), by using the median values of ao and ag for sloping
basins, are 0.48 and 0.53 respectively, to be compared with
values of h in the range 0.52 – 0.60, with mean h = 0.55,
obtained for a different set of basins by Rigon et al. [1996]).
5. Conclusions
[15] Recession curves in sloping basins bear the signature
of the geomorphic structure of the channel network which
produces them. Such a signature can be identified through a
simple model of the ADN dynamics under the following
assumptions: i) Q is proportional to the total length, G(l), of
the ADN, ii) the discharge per unit length of the ADN, q, is
constant in space, iii) the rate, c, at which the ADN contracts
is constant in space and time, and iv) the rate of change of
the total length of the active drainage network dominates
over the rate of change of q, such that dQ/dt is proportional
to the number, N(l), of the terminal links of the ADN.
[16] N(l) is likely to become small during prolonged
drought periods, even in sloping basins. In this regime the
ADN is limited to the main and most stably saturated links
of the channel network, such that the term containing dq/dt
in the expression for dQ/dt (2) can no longer be neglected.
In the case of prolonged recession periods one must thus
also account for the term dq/dt, as in Brutsaert and Nieber
[1977]. The theoretical interpretation developed here, how-
ever, does capture the properties of observed recession
curves for the large number of sloping basins considered,
suggesting that indeed q · dG/dt  dq/dt · G(t) in a rela-
tively frequent dynamical regime. In fact, the power‐law
exponents obtained from observational −dQ/dt vs. Q curves
agree well with the exponents obtained from the corre-
sponding N(l) vs. G(l) curves when basins are relatively
steep. This result provides a valuable conceptual interpre-
tation of recession hydrographs and possibly a way to infer
their characteristics solely from DTM’s.
[17] Our analyses show that the power‐law form of −dQ/
dt vs. Q curves does not stem from a one‐to‐one relationship
between Q(t) and the volume of water stored within the
basin, but rather from the underlying morphological struc-
ture of the channel network. We also show that, in order to
avoid a severe underestimation of the scaling exponent,
recession analysis should be performed separately for each
single event, rather than by binning all recession data
together.
[18] Finally, our results identify some general connections
between recession curves and Hack’s law, which char-
acterizes the organizational structure of channel networks.
Values of Hack’s exponent retrieved from observed reces-
sion curves and from N(l) vs. G(l) curves are in good general
agreement with those obtained from traditional DTM anal-
yses, in further support of the geomorphic roots of recession
curves properties.
[19] In closing, it is interesting to note that the good
agreement between the predictions from the model of ADN
dynamics and the observed exponents of −dQ/dt vs. Q
curves is a confirmation that the hypotheses of the model
indeed hold for the large set of sloping basins and events
considered. In particular, the specific discharge q appears to
be approximately spatially constant. One is thus led to argue
significant degree, to subsurface flow, in such a way as to
L24403 BISWAL AND MARANI: GEOMORPHOLOGICAL RECESSION CURVES
produce an approximately uniform drainage of the local
groundwater system and thus a unform distribution of q.
[20] Acknowledgments. The authors gratefully acknowledge the
CARIPARO foundation for funding the PhD scholarship awarded to BB,
and for financial support through the research project ‘Transport phenom-
ena in river basins: theory and hydrologic and geophysical observations’.
Funding from the University of Padova ‘Strategic Research Project’ on
‘Geological and Hydrological Processes: Monitoring, Modelling and Im-
pacts in North‐east Italy’ is also acknowledged.
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B. Biswal and M. Marani, Dipartimento IMAGE, Università di Padova,
Via Loredan 20, I‐35131 Padova, Italy. (marani@idra.unipd.it)