The main headwater, the Bhagirathi River, rises at an elevation of about 10,000 feet (3,000 metres) at the foot of the Gangotri Glacier, considered sacred by Hindus.
This contrasts with many lotic models whose primary emphasis or support focuses on main channel systems within headwaters.
During the warm period, mean stream temperatures increased by 5.9 °C downstream along 9 km of the main stem from the headwater spring to the forested outflow as groundwater was exposed to air temperatures and environmental heat fluxes.
The first significant regional action was the intervention by the New Zealand Forest Service NZFSS) in 1960 to begin to reforest large tracts of eroding farmland in the headwaters of the main river systems with exotic plantations.
Additionally, recent radiocarbon measurements of DOC in the Rianila basin during the wet season, including two headwater and one main channel samples, were all C-enriched (∆C range +81 to +136‰; own unpublished data) and indicate a modern terrestrial C3-enriched DOC source for Rianila streams and rivers.
Comparison of floodplain alluvial sequences in watersheds ranging in scale from headwater tributaries to the main valley Mississippi River demonstrates that land use changes triggered hydrologic responses that were transmitted nearly simultaneously to all watershed scales.
Farther up the ridge, Bauer found what he was looking for the headwater of Miners Creek, a main Klamath tributary, and black pipes, not wider than his forearm, drawing, by his estimate, a fifth of the flow.
In the main Himalayan ranges, areas drained by the headwaters of the major Indus tributaries form a transitional zone where Tibetan cultural features mingle with those of the Indian pahari (hill) region.
We showed how climate change effects on streamflow propagate from high elevation headwater catchments to the river in the main valley by analyzing changes in several hydrological metrics and at various temporal scales across 297 control sections.
