a low drainage density basin will, on average, have to travel a longer distance over the low velocity hillslope to reach the channels. As a result, the water will require more time to reach the exit of the catchment. The lag time between the peak of the hyetograph and the hydrograph is then inversely related to drainage density; as drainage density increases, water is more efficiently drained from the basin and the lag time decreases. Another impact on the hydrograph that drainage density has is a steeper falling limb following the storm event due to its impact on both overland flow and baseflow. The falling limb occurs after the peak of the hydrograph curve and is when overland flow is decreasing back to ambient levels. In higher drainage systems, the overland flow reaches the channels quicker resulting in a narrower spread in the falling limb. Baseflow is the other contributor to the hydrograph. The peak of baseflow to the channels will occur after the quick-flow peak because groundwater flow is much slower than quick-flow. Because the baseflow peak occurs after the quick-flow peak, the baseflow peak influences the shape of the falling limb.4 According to the proportionality put forth by Gregory and Walling, as drainage density increases, the contribution of baseflow to the falling limb of the hydrograph diminishes. During a storm event in a high drainage density basin, there is little water that infiltrates into the ground as infiltration because water spends less time flowing over the surface in the catchment before exiting through the central channel. Because there is little water that enters the water as infiltration, baseflow will contribute only a small part to falling limb. The falling limb is thus quite steep. Conversely, a low drainage system will have a shallower falling limb. According to Gregory and Walling’s relation, the decrease in drainage density results in an increase in baseflow to the channels and a more gradual decrease in the hydrograph. Effect of climate change on drainage density Drainage density may also be influenced by climate change. Langbein and Schumm (1958)9 propose an equation for the rate of sediment discharge through catchment as a function of precipitation rate: Where P is sediment yield, R is the average effective rainfall, α ~ 2.3, γ ~ 3.33, and a and b vary depending on units. The graph of this equation has a maximum between 10 and 14 inches