Which mechanism causes increased flood risk when vegetation is removed from an alluvial plain?

💡 Explanation

When vegetation is removed, decreased surface roughness occurs because root systems no longer impede overland flow, leading to increased flow velocity and discharge in channels. Therefore, increased surface runoff greatly amplifies flood risk, rather than reducing evapotranspiration or erosion which would require vegetation increasing not decreasing.

• Which consequence results when overgrazing reduces bioturbation rates?
• Which outcome commonly occurs from increased silt weathering in loess deposits?
• Which process initiates the formation of an alluvial fan deposit in arid regions?
• Which process drives magma differentiation at subduction zones?
• Which outcome accelerates when thawing permafrost exposes previously frozen organic matter to aerobic conditions?
• Which phenomenon amplifies coastal upwelling along western continental margins?