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# Are big basins just the sum of small catchments?

## Details

**Authors** Shaman, Jeffrey and Stieglitz, Marc and Burns, Doug

**Year** 2004

**Publisher** Hydrological Processes

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Hydrology

**Secondary disciplines** Environment & Sustainability

**Applied** false

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.5739) 
10.1002/hyp.5739

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To test whether low-flow runoff changes with basin size, on the expectation that deep groundwater contributes more to low flow in larger basins.

### Who or what was studied (sample)

Eleven mostly nested catchments in the 176 square kilometer Neversink River watershed, Catskill Mountains, New York.

### How they did it (methods)

Comparison of low-flow runoff across nested basins that share similar topography, vegetation, soils, and bedrock, set against a previous stream-chemistry study of the same watershed.

### What they found (results)

The hypothesis was not supported. Above a critical basin size of about 8 to 21 square kilometers, low-flow runoff was similar across the watershed. The physical data showed self-similarity among basins larger than 8 square kilometers, while the earlier chemistry study found gradual change among basins larger than 3 square kilometers.

## Commentary

### In short

The authors compare low-flow runoff across nested catchments of different sizes. Above a threshold size the larger basins behave like the smaller ones, though the threshold differs for physical and chemical measures.

### Response

The study speaks to Systems, since it asks whether a whole is the sum of its nested parts. It also shows a Distinction in the form of a critical size threshold at which behavior changes. Caveats: the finding is that the whole resembles its parts above a threshold, which is a statement about scale and self-similarity more than about emergence. The relationship between the chemical and physical thresholds is only noted by the authors. This record rests on the publisher page and Crossref only, not the full text.

**Patterns it shows** D, S

Shows the structure is there

**Added** 2026-11-02

**How to cite this** Shaman, Jeffrey and Stieglitz, Marc and Burns, Doug (2004). Are big basins just the sum of small catchments?. Hydrological Processes.