• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.151-164
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• 1996

The regional division by the characteristics of the drainage patterns is important to understand its physical environment comprehensively, because the drainage network develops in reflecting characteristics of geological, geographical and climatical features in the drainage basin keenly. This study is the attempt to divide physical region in China whose drainage pattern is diverse. Chinese drainage basin is mainly divided into the interior drainage basin and the peripheral drainage basin. The interior drainage basin is divided into (1)the deranged pattern and (2)the centripetal pattern. The peripheral drainage basin is divided into (1)the dendritic pattern, (2)the parallel pattern, (3)the radial pattern and (4)the anastomatic pattern. Drainage patterns of the interior drainage basin are formed by affecting geographical features and climatic conditions mainly. In the peripheral drainage basin, drainage patterns are formed by other factors: the parallel pattern is connected with geological structure lineament by tectonic movement, the radial pattern with changes of the river channel resulted from the Yellow River's overflow, the anastomotic pattern with human's activities. The distributional features of the physical region in China are as follows: The deranged pattern appears in Zangbai Plateau, the centripetal pattern does in arid basin of the northwest China. the parallel pattern does in Hengduan mountains affected strongly by tectonic movement between Yangtze paraplatform and Indian Plate, does in the upper stream of Yangtze River and Ganges River in the south of Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, the radial pattern in Huaihe Haihe River drainage basin appearing in the alluvial fan region of Yellow River's downstream and the anastomotic pattern does in the delta of Yangtze River, in the northern coastal plain of the Jiangsu-Province and in the delta of Zhujiang River. Except these areas in the peripheral drainage basin, the dendritic pattern is usually found in the other areas.