Contribution to Book
The Mondego River and Its Valley
Landscapes and Landforms of Portugal
(2020)
Abstract
The Mondego is the largest river that has both its headwaters and estuary in Portugal. Flowing in Central Portugal from Serra da Estrela to the city of Figueira da Foz, it has a semi-torrential regime with irregular inter- and intra-annual discharge variations as a result of a Mediterranean climate. This regime was responsible for the occurrence of large floods, mainly in the Lower Mondego, a region that through history has also suffered from significant siltation. The Mondego valley shows four major sectors from an entrenched valley in Serra da Estrela to a wide floodplain downstream from the city of Coimbra. The morphological characteristics of the valley and the phases of stability responsible for the benches and fluvio-torrential and fluvial (terrace) deposits are key in the understanding of the landscape of Central Portugal in which the Mondego River is the largest and major contributor.
Keywords
- Mondego River,
- Floods,
- Fluvial Terraces,
- Fluvial Geomorphology
Disciplines
Publication Date
May 23, 2020
Editor
Vieira G., Zêzere J., Mora C.
Publisher
Springer, Cham
Series
World Geomorphological Landscapes
ISBN
978-3-319-03640-3
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-03641-0_14
Citation Information
Lúcio Cunha, João A. Santos and Anabela Ramos. "The Mondego River and Its Valley" Landscapes and Landforms of Portugal (2020) p. 175 - 184 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/joao-santos/33/