Sensitivity of bocage landscapes to surfaces run‐off: Application of the kirkby index

The Breton bocage is a landscape of fields enclosed by a network of hedgerow banks and ditches. Organization of this bocage varies considerably in different areas of Brittany. However, one constant feature of the different bocage landscapes is the presence of banks enclosing bottom lands, which enclose elongated plots in the thalweg bottoms. The banks enclosing the bottom lands influence the sensitivity of the basin to surface run‐off and also the presence of excess surface water zones. To analyse the part played by banks enclosing bottom lands, the topography of a typical first order basin was modelled and the existence of such a bank within the catchment was simulated. The effect of the bank on the Kirkby index, a topographical parameter defining the sensitivity of soils to surface run‐off was analysed. Modification of its spatial distribution is considerable for mean values of the index. The saturation zone, the storm run‐off source area, is reduced to that area of bottom land enclosed by the bank; it thus varies very little so that run‐off conditions are almost constant whatever the climatic conditions. From the methodological point of view, the interest of analysing the spatial distribution of morphometric parameters of a catchment may be noted; in the example studied, the heterogeneity of the Kirkby index distribution is an important factor in the analysis.