Ritter, D. F.

Regional landform thresholds

Remote sensing technology allows us to recognize manifestations of regional thresholds, especially in the spatial characteristics of process agents. For example, a change in river channel pattern over a short distance reflects a threshold alteration in the physical controls of discharge and/or sediment. It is, therefore, a valuable indication of conditions as they exist. However, we probably will have difficulty determining whether the systemic parameters are now close to threshold conditions at which a different change will occur. This, of course, is a temporal and magnitude problem which is difficult to solve from the spatial characteristics.