Geomorphology Characteristic and Tectonic Response of the Meijiang Watershed in the Southern China Represented by Hypsometric Integral

Abstract

MeiJiang river basin was selected as study area in this paper because it is a typical representative in the mountains of south China. Firstly, the study area was classified into several catchments in ARCGIS platform based on DEM data. Secondly, this paper withdraws the measuring indicators of the geomorphology and hypsometric integral from the basins. Then we study the information of geological structure and development of disaster situation. Finally, revealing the relationship between Hypsometric Integral and tectonic activity, lithological association and disaster intensity. It provides an important theory and method for studying geomorphic spatial pattern and characteristics of development as a whole. The result indicates that Hypsometric Integral has a spatial scale effect, geomorphology, lithology and disaster development can be simulated by small watersheds. For one thing, the studying area is in the mature phase, which is a high-incidence area with many kinds of mountain disasters; for another thing, the 1erosion resistance of biotite monzonitic granite is the most strongly. On the contrary, the sandstone, conglomerate, glutenite, siltstone, mudstone and limestone of it are weakly. At last, regional tectonic activity can be reflected by the Hypsometric Integral of big watershed units.