Technical Guide#
This guide covers the implicit, iterative approaches used to solve the multiple flow direction water routing and the erosion deposition processes main algorithms implemented in goSPL.
goSPL is mostly written in Python with some functions in Fortran and takes advantage of PETSc solvers over parallel computing architectures using MPI.
Further information on any specific methods can be obtained in the API reference.
Short Description
The code is primarily a parallel global scale landscape evolution model, built to simulate topography and basins dynamics. The following processes are considered:
river incision and deposition using stream power law (detachment & transport-limited formulation),
continental deposition including soil/regolith production, weathering and tracking,
marine deposition at river mouth based on non-linear diffusion,
hillslope processes (linear/nonlinear) in both marine and inland areas,
groundwater (implicit water table) driving a generic duricrust that armors erodibility, with optional conservative solute geochemistry (multi-tracer dissolution → transport → precipitation → river/ocean export),
ice sheets and glacial erosion (glacial abrasion, till/moraine deposition, meltwater and ice loading),
dual-lithology (coarse/fine) sediment tracking and sediment provenance (source-to-sink attribution),
sediment compaction as stratigraphic layers geometry and properties change,
spatially and temporally varying tectonics (horizontal and vertical displacements).
spatially and temporally varying precipitation grids as well as orographic rain and sea-level fluctuations,
possibility to account for flexural isostasy driven by changes in surface loading.
River flow implementation
Based on a parallel implicit drainage area (IDA) method. Want to gain insights on the implemented approach?
Erosion rate and sediment flux
Based on the stream power law (SPL), river erosion depends on local slope,discharge and erodibility coefficient.
Inland depressions & deposition
Computes the evolution in internally drained basins using a priority-flood algorithm.
Hillslope and marine deposition
Change in elevation induced by creep law and transport of river sediment in the marine realm based on diffusion equations.
Stratigraphy and compaction
Record stratigraphic layers through time, track two sediment types and compute porosity changes induced by deposition.
Tectonic forcing
Displacements either induced by lithospheric or mantle forcing are used to move the surface both horizontally and vertically.
Ice sheets and glacial erosion
Shallow-Ice-Approximation ice-sheet model: implicit non-linear-diffusion ice dynamics, velocity-based glacial abrasion, till/moraine deposition, meltwater re-injection and ice loading.
Sediment provenance (source-to-sink)
Post-processing tool attributing sediment deposited in sink basins to source-rock types — per basin and per pixel — with transport distance and a copper-fertility layer.
Water table & duricrust
Implicit Dupuit–Boussinesq water table driving a generic capillary-fringe duricrust that armors erodibility — relief inversion, stacked/exhumed crusts, soil-coupled or standalone.