Landscape connectivity: the geographic basis of geomorphic applications

Geographic concerns for spatial relationships lie at the heart of geomorphic applications in environmental management. The way in which landscape compartments fit together in a catchment influences the operation of biophysical fluxes, and hence the ways in which disturbance responses are mediated over time. These relationships reflect the connectivity of the landscape. A nested hierarchical framework that emphasizes differing forms of (dis)connectivity in catchments is proposed. This field-based geomorphic tool can be used to ground the application of modelling techniques in analysis of catchment-scale biophysical fluxes.