In soil science, Horton overland flow describes the tendency of water to flow horizontally across land surfaces when rainfall has exceeded infiltration capacity and depression storage capacity. It is named after Robert E. Horton, the ecologist who made the first detailed studies of the phenomenon.
Paved surfaces such as asphalt, which are designed to be flat and impermeable, rapidly achieve Horton overland flow. It is shallow, sheetlike, and fast-moving, and hence capable of extensively eroding soil and bedrock.
Horton overland flow is most commonly encountered in urban construction sites and rural dirt roads, where vegetation has been stripped away, exposing bare dirt. The process also poses a significant problem in areas with steep terrain, where water can build up great speed and where soil is less stable, and in farmlands, where soil is flat and loose.
Famous quotes containing the words horton and/or flow:
“By recognizing a favorable opinion of yourself, and taking pleasure in it, you in a measure give yourself and your peace of mind into the keeping of another, of whose attitude you can never be certain. You have a new source of doubt and apprehension.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
“Clay answered the petition by declaring that while he looked on the institution of slavery as an evil, it was ‘nothing in comparison with the far greater evil which would inevitably flow from a sudden and indiscriminate emancipation.’”
—State of Indiana, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)