Notion of elements in geomorphological science

Abstract

The free interpretation of the «elements of the Earth's surface» notion which was characteristic of the traditional geomorphology is hardly admissible within the frame of the system approach; it should be eliminated in the course of the organization of the geomorphological knowledge. Elements of a static quasi-integral morphological system are formal points, linear and areal elements which can be identified unambiguously from their morphology and cannot be divided into smaller units; they are connected by definite spatial interrelations and represent adequately ingredients of the Earth's surface. Points and structural lines correspond to those parts of the surface where its main parameters (such as absolute heights or depths as a function of planar coordinates, first and second derivatives of the function, horizontal curvature) undergo essential qualitative and extreme quantitative changes. Areal elements are characterized by morphological homogeneity which results from and, in turn, causes the genetic and dynamic homogeneity. The elements of the Earth's surface can be identified on analytic maps at any scale.