Landscape evolution models

Our group maintains the following code repositories for landscape evolution models on GitHub. If you use or adapt code that results in in a publication, please cite related paper(s) as appropriate.

Cutbank: a numerical model for a meandering river that interacts with heterogeneous bank materials. This software implements and builds on the kinematic model for meandering river evolution developed by Howard & Knutson (1984, doi:10.1029/WR020i011p01659). The original model describes the evolution of a channel centerline (i.e., the line midway between the banks of a channel with fixed width). Migrating channels commonly interact with banks of different strengths due to differences in lithology and sediment grain size. This interplay between the channel and its surroundings shapes many environments, but efforts to explore this interaction with numerical models have been hampered by the evolving, curvilinear geometry of channel boundaries. This software implements two different numerical approaches to treat the co-evolution of channel migration and bank-material-properties: a traditional grid-based approach, and a novel vector-based approach. The vector-based framework provides new opportunities for exploring the long-term co-evolution of sinuous channels and surrounding landscapes that overcomes a key numerical artifact inherent in the grid-based approach.

References:

Limaye, A. B. S., & Lamb, M. P. (2014). Numerical simulations of bedrock valley evolution by meandering rivers with variable bank material. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 119(4), 927–950. https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JF002997

Limaye, A. B. S., & Lamb, M. P. (2016). Numerical model predictions of autogenic fluvial terraces and comparison to climate change expectations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 121(3), 512–544. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JF003392

Torres, M. A., Limaye, A. B., Ganti, V., Lamb, M. P., West, A. J., & Fischer, W. W. (2017). Model predictions of long-lived storage of organic carbon in river deposits. Earth Surface Dynamics, 5(4), 711–730. https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-5-711-2017

Li, Y., and Limaye, A. B. (2024). Timescale of the morphodynamic feedback between planform geometry and lateral migration of meandering rivers, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface 129(2), https://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2023JF007413.

AR2-sinuosity: a model for river channel sinuosity using a second-order autoregressive structure. This code creates the channel centerline (i.e., the line equidistant between two banks) for a single thread-channel, using a second-order autoregressive model. The code implements a model for random centerlines proposed by Ferguson (1976, doi:10.1002/esp.3290010403). This implementation also includes (1) controls for the node spacing and extent of channels, (2) removal of self-intersecting (cutoff) loops from modeled centerlines, and (3) a wrapper script to sweep model parameter space and generate alternate realizations using different random disturbance series. More information on this code and a download link are listed in the model repository at the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS).

• Related paper: Limaye, A. B., Lazarus, E. D., Li, Y., and Schwenk, J., 2021, River sinuosity describes a continuum between randomness and ordered growth, Geology 49 (12), 1506–1510, doi:10.1130/G49153.1.

Sun fan-delta model: a model for fluvial fan-delta evolution, originally described by Sun et al. (2002, doi:10.1029/2001WR000284) and later implemented and extended by Limaye et al. (2023, doi:10.1029/2022GL102367). The model routes water and sediment across a grid from a single inlet and via a self-formed channel network, where local divergence in sediment flux drives bed elevation change. The model represents hydrodynamics using rules for flow routing and stress partitioning. At large scales, other heuristics determine how channels branch and avulse, distributing water and sediment. The original model, designed for fluvial fan-deltas that debouch into standing water, is extended to allow deposition of an alluvial fan in the absence of standing water. More information on this code and is listed in the model repository at the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS).

References: Limaye, A. B., Adler, J. B., Moodie, A. J., Whipple, K. X., & Howard, A. D. (2023). Effect of standing water on formation of fan-shaped sedimentary deposits at Hypanis Valles, Mars. Geophysical Research Letters, 50(4), e2022GL102367, doi:10.1029/2022GL102367.