The fluvial system is a major concern in modeling landform evolution in response to tectonic deformation. Three stream bed types (bedrock, coarse‐bed alluvial, and fine‐bed alluvial) differ in factors controlling their occurrence and evolution and in appropriate modeling approaches. Spatial and temporal transitions among bed types occur in response to changes in sediment characteristics and tectonic deformation. Erosion in bedrock channels depends upon the ability to scour or pluck bed material; this detachment capacity is often a power function of drainage area and gradient. Exposure of bedrock in channel beds, due to rapid downcutting or resistant rock, slows the response of headwater catchments to downstream baselevel changes. Sediment routing through alluvial channels must account for supply from slope erosion, transport rates, abrasion, and sorting. In regional landform modeling, implicit rate laws must be developed for sediment production from erosion of sub‐grid‐scale slopes and small channels.

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Analysis of topographic maps of rivers incised into dated Hawaiian lava flows shows that the long term average bedrock erosion rate along certain reaches is linearly related to stream power. Field observations suggest that two processes may control Hawaiian channel downcutting: (1) stream power-dependent erosion, including abrasion of the channel bed by transported particles, and (2) step-wise lowering caused by knickpoint propagation. Modeling results indicate that a simple stream power-dependent erosion law predicts the straight to weakly convex longitudinal profiles characteristic of Kauai channels but is insufficient to predict two other characteristic features: the upslope propagation of knickpoints and the straight 5-8° channel slopes below the knickpointS; thus more than this single transport law is apparently required to model bedrock channel incision. Field surveys also indicate that significant portions of the channel lengths below the knickpoints are mantled with large boulders. We propose that the boulder mantling of long channel reaches inhibits channel incision, reducing downcutting to a rate set by boulder weathering, breakdown and transport of the material, and perhaps by knickpoint propagation sweeping under the boulder armor. Partial boulder mantling of bedrock-dominated channels is common in mountainous regions, and a theory which takes boulder armoring into account will have broader applications than one which ignores these limiting effects.

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