Quantitative Geomorphology

Abstract

Quantitative geomorphology developed as a school of thought during the 1950s and 1960s. Pioneer researchers introduced process‐based thinking supported by measurements to explain land form evolution and characteristics. Quantitative geomorphology was founded on the idea that objectivity and observations should be reinforced by quantification using instruments that provide reliable and precise data. It contrasts with qualitative (visual) observation, which is limited to observable facts (although many processes are not directly perceptible) and is biased by the acuity of the observer, his/her experiences, memories, beliefs, or attachment to a given theory. In the late 1990s, new technological facilities associated with larger datasets led to a new era in scientific practices and questionings. Geomorphology, based on a field tradition, is becoming increasingly numerical and remotely sensed. This new era, seen as a second quantitative revolution within the discipline, widened our spatial and temporal vision and is reconciling holistic and reductionist approaches by engaging multiple‐scale perspectives and improving linkages between evolutionary and functional geomorphology.

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