Stream piracy describes a scenario of forcible take-over, leaving the weak and plundered river with less or nothing in the stream network for the experience of a take-off just like the stories of the pirates of old. This research intends to analyze the recognition of drainage reorganization at Wutach Gorge (Black Forest) with respect to the interactions between the shapes of stream networks, transport processes, and the landforms they create. As a result of this known geomorphological activity, various scientific reasonings established were based on whether there are channels where there is a sudden change in longitudinal stream bed profile caused by previous erosion due to glaciation or variability in lithology, then using the information to establish different relationship(s) between slope steepness and distance from the upper to lower reaches within the Gorge.
I utilize a MATLAB-based software for topographic analysis by visualizing a downloaded DEM of the study area of about 2,979km2, which covers the Danube and Rhine-Wutach stream network, and quantitatively analyze the river longitudinal profiles by exploring differences in overall profile shape, visualizing the drainage pattern of the stream network, and extracting interpretations from the maps that agree with known river captures and morphological features. The temporal position variation of the stream network indicates the change and development of new tributaries, such as the Rhine-Wutach River capture along the stream network revealing an elbow of capture, whereby forming a gorge by the captor stream through headward erosion across the ridge.
This evidence of stream piracy may have imposed some physical and ecological challenges such as accelerated erosion and deposition of sediments due to the changes in river flow direction whereby causing hanging tributaries in the Feldberg-Donau River channel.